Did the Town of Ladysmith’s community visioning process increase broader municipal engagement?

This project on civic engagement in the Town of Ladysmith explores the potential that a short-term municipal visioning process influenced broader civic engagement outside of its scope. Using mixed methods to triangulate quantitative, qualitative, and participatory data, this research incorporates existing literature and investigates new ways of measuring civic engagement. The results demonstrate the importance of trust, transparency, clear two-way communication, and shared responsibility in creating effective community engagement. This research also demonstrates a preliminary indication that unplanned civic engagement increases may be a result of finite engagement events when those events meet the above criteria for collaboration between citizens and their local government.