CAMP Communication and Engagement Toolkit

The  University of Miami’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement (CCE)  was founded in 2011 with the goal of enhancing university-community collaborations by engaging the university’s academic resources in the enrichment of civic and community life in South Florida. CCE develops teaching and research strategies that directly link academic scholarship to public practice. By harnessing the University’s diverse academic resources, its deep connections to the region, and its spirit of innovation, our office seeks to help solve complex problems through dynamic, collaborative, multidisciplinary teaching, research, and community engagement.

At the time of the office’s founding, we set out to bring our resources to bear on one of the most vexing issues facing South Florida: affordable housing. Ten years later, this issue has become even more challenging given the growing impacts of climate change. Indeed, Miami is seen by many as “ground zero” for two of the nation’s most pressing issues: housing affordability and climate change. Through years of collaboration with municipal leaders, academic experts, non-profit organizations, grassroots advocacy organizers, and local neighborhood groups, we have built a blueprint for effective engagement, research, and communication about the issues of climate change impacts and housing affordability that can be utilized by cities wishing to take collaborative action to address these challenges.

CCE developed the award-winning Miami Housing Solutions Lab (MHSL), a suite of free, publicly accessible online mapping tools designed to provide data-rich resources about affordable housing and urban resilience in the Miami metro region. This platform provides grass-roots advocacy groups, planners, policy makers, affordable housing developers, and the general public with information on local housing needs as well as strategies for promoting equitable, inclusive, and resilient community development. The centerpiece of the MHSL is the Miami Affordability Project (MAP). MAP is an interactive online map for visualizing neighborhood-level housing dynamics. MAP contains over 300 data filters on housing, property, and demographics to facilitate analysis of the housing market supply and demand, funding programs, and affordability preservation risks. MAP also features a historic layer that includes period photographs and property information from the City of Miami Historic Preservation Office and Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser to map out historically significant properties in these neighborhoods. The CCE team expanded MAP in 2020 to include data filters showing elevation, sea level rise, and other flooding-related indicators, making it the first tool to directly demonstrate the impacts of climate change on Miami’s vulnerable affordable housing stock. In 2022, CCE launched the latest iteration of MAP, incorporating extreme heat data into the tool. The Climate and Equity and Mapping Platform (CAMP) project explores the disproportionate impacts of extreme heat on under-resourced communities in Miami-Dade County. Our goal is to increase the availability and transparency of data related to these conditions to inform evidence-grounded policy solutions.

This toolkit is designed to convey different methods and best practices that could be considered in the interdisciplinary and cross-sector development of a climate and equity data resource platform for your city. We hope this framework can help guide cities in contemplating the use of big data and civic tech to create evidence-based strategies for promoting housing affordability, urban resilience, and equitable community development. Every city, encompassing and inclusive of its surrounding urban spaces, has a different historical trajectory in relation to issues of affordable housing, equity, and environmental justice that will shape how climate resilience issues play out across the landscape. As such, we advise centering issues of equity and climate justice as you launch your own city-based, community collaboration project.

Since the foundational days of the internet in the 1990’s, digital maps were one of the earliest examples of the powerful impact of this transformational technology in communicating complex data. Since then, the ability to visualize geographic information has changed the way we think, drive, and conduct our daily lives. In 2014, CCE recognized the importance of taking advantage of robust public data sources to help local grassroots advocacy organizations, non-profits, and municipalities generate visually compelling, data-rich maps to communicate conditions related to affordable housing and equitable resilience. These maps have become important storytelling instruments, guiding users through a curated tour of historic disinvestment, socioeconomic conditions, and geographic challenges that help build the platforms from which real change can emerge.

Two of the biggest challenges many metropolitan regions face are housing affordability and climate impacts. This is especially true of coastal cities where rising sea levels will impact the already inadequate supply of affordable housing. Collaborating with policy makers, planners, elected officials, grass-roots organizations, and engineers and designers helps ensure that these vexing challenges are being addressed through a multidisciplinary perspective. Creating data tools such as digital maps and visualizations helps a wide range of stakeholders better understand the issues at hand and potential solutions to be implemented.

Since the initial launch of CCE’s signature mapping tool, the Miami Affordability Project (MAP), MAP has evolved to be responsive to needs and concerns elevated by the community. The MAP tool, first developed in 2014, had a completely different interface and over a hundred data indicators. MAP evolved over time to now include 300+ data filters currently incorporated in the tool. With each update to the MAP tool, we are able to include more data and parcel level data as well as refine the interface to increase ease of use. In 2020, CCE received funding from  JP Morgan Chase  to update MAP and include indicators about sea level rise, extreme heat exposure, and historical disinvestment in Miami-Dade County. These additions serve to aid discussions about climate impacts on affordable housing.

A data-driven platform such as MAP can be an asset for any community:

• Flexible – Data-driven resources are most valuable if created through an iterative process that responds to current issues of immediate concern
• Community-driven – the solutions that mapping resources can help to shape gain the most traction with community foundation and support
• Collaborative – As we have seen in Miami, the strength of community data and mapping resources derives from the triad of community, university, and municipal partnerships. This strong collaborative relationship is vital to ensuring that the process of data gathering and sharing is aligned across sectors so that we can build on the strengths of each partner to meet goals most effectively 

Miami-Dade County encompasses 34 distinct municipalities within its boundaries. The political, geographic, infrastructure, and service implications of these various boundaries, in addition to the unique community fabric residing within each of these incorporated cities, can be a recipe for confusion. Creating easily accessible data-driven resources within such fragmented governance structures can help communities understand the local landscape of housing and climate decision-making. A city does not need a complex municipal configuration, however, to benefit from such a tool. The transparency, predictability, and common language that mapping and data resources provide can help guide smoother, more productive conversations between informed communities and their elected officials and policymakers.

At its core, the goal of a communication and engagement resource is to provide relevant, accessible, and purpose-driven information about pressing issues surfaced by local communities so that effective solutions can be created to address them. Our goal has always been to democratize data in order to facilitate equitable and inclusive housing and urban resilience strategies. In our work in Miami, the tools we created at the inception of our affordable housing mapping and policy work have grown and evolved as a result of a consistent and ongoing dialogue with our partners. These partners become stakeholders in the work, helping us to ensure that the resources we ultimately produce are crafted in a way that makes them accessible and resonant to a wide range of users. An example of partners we have engaged with on our mapping tools in Miami include:

• Non-profit housing and climate grassroots advocacy and non-profit organizations such as  Miami Homes for All ,  Catalyst Miami ,  CLEO Institute , and  South Florida Community Development Corporation (SFCDC) 
• Municipal government staff and planners working for County and local municipal governments
• Community leaders in neighborhoods with high concentrations of low income residents and high climate vulnerability, including Liberty City, Little Haiti, Allapattah, Little Havana, Overtown, Homestead, and Florida City

Understanding the breadth of organizations working in areas related to affordable housing and climate impacts was a critical first step to confirming need, identifying key challenges and pinch-points, and helping to define the ultimate tools to best address these issues.

This early groundwork can be done by identifying local organizations or chapters of national groups that are working on issues related to equitable urban resilience. An asset map of key local organizations working both in issue-based as well as neighborhood-focused advocacy can help the team identify a wide range of potential partners. Key to engaging with grass-roots organizations is establishing relationships and building trust so that you develop a culture of collaboration built upon an ethic of reciprocity and shared knowledge creation.

Connecting with local government planning, resilience, or public housing departments is also essential so that you can work together in sharing data resources and laying out strategies for policy changes that are responsive to local needs. Staff in these agencies often have close connections with civic leaders and community organizations that help them to define their work agendas.

In addition, it is important to establish connections with local thought leaders and academic or professional experts on topics related to the housing and resilience resources that you intend to develop. These connections can help to generate additional stakeholders and contacts beyond those available to the project originator, widening the scope of research, influence, and advocacy to build buy-in once solutions are proposed.

From these early introductions, one can begin to assemble a stakeholder group that can be effective in building knowledge and trust towards the delivery of the resource. Moreover, the effort will benefit greatly in building trust with local communities when a broader group of community partners and advocates can be part of the development of this work.

Building an understanding of the political landscape, governance structure, and your state’s charter is an important starting point for creating resources that can inform or assist in policy goals. It is critical for resource architects to have a broad overview of the powers and limitations of local authorities to help guide effective and fluid conversations.

Current political priorities can help to inform possible policy recommendations that may be particularly timely additions to community conversations. Following the convenings of commissions or councils and paying attention to allocations during budgeting season are two opportunities to gain some insight into how resources in a proposed tool can be modified to best respond to issues of local significance.

A digital data tool offers a great service to local non-profit and advocacy organizations attempting to traverse complex political landscapes. With proper and timely updates and currency, the tools can provide a bridge between political discussions and advocacy priorities.

Once you have drafted an outline of what you are trying to accomplish, including your target audiences and localized issues that you wish to address with a housing and resilience resource, the next logical question becomes, “Who is going to pay for this?"

A useful exercise to test your assumptions before reaching out to funding organizations is to undertake a SWOT analysis – Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Outlining the obvious wins and potential limitations will strengthen the proposal and make it more compelling to potential funding sources.  

While funding sources can vary by location, below is a starting point for identifying objectives, matching them with potential funders, and building your housing and resilience resource tool:

• Private philanthropy and corporate foundations – local and national philanthropies as well as corporate foundations can be effective partners in making meaningful contributions to tackling challenges of housing affordability and climate resilience initiatives. Foundations such as the MacArthur, Kresge, and Doris Duke Charitable Foundations are examples of national organizations with a commitment to housing and climate issues. 

• Federal grant programs – federal funding agencies have placed a focus on not only creating new knowledge and ideas but also on the most effective ways to ensure that they are distributed with an equity lens. Federal granting institutions include NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among many others

• Local municipal opportunities – local government agencies may put out Requests for Proposals to seek expertise in specific areas that may align with equitable housing and resilience efforts. Expanding upon current initiatives and projects with local partners is another effective way to make a compelling case for additional funds. Building upon a proof of concept of other aligned initiatives can be a strong foundation from which to pursue additional support. Housing and transportation agencies are often charged with allocating state and federal funds at the local level.  

Whereas a position paper or research brief offers a snapshot in time, a digital housing and resilience resource is ideally a platform that is more fluid and responsive to emerging needs and considerations. In addition to an interactive map, resources can include several other components, such as:

• Policy toolkits: A collection of best practices and recommended policies and programs to consider addressing issues of urban equitable resilience
• Glossary: A list of terms and definitions to provide clarity about concepts to a wide audience with differing levels of fluency in the issues
• Fact sheets: A one-page fact sheet that takes a deeper dive into one area of focus can be a particularly powerful way to provide clarity and understanding. These are intended to be brief, easily digestible, and graphically compelling snapshots that shine a light on a particular issue

In addition to building the content and structure, there are some technical aspects of constructing a housing and resilience resource tool that must be considered to optimize its utility:

What is the knowledge gap it is filling? What are similar tools already out there and how does this enhance them or differ?

• This is among the earliest considerations one should make when considering the creation of a housing and resilience resource tool. Online data visualization and mapping tools abound, it is important to make a clear case for the tool you intend to create to maximize utility and appeal for users and financial supporters.

Consider and build for the intended audience(s)

• If geared toward general users and not experts, ensure voice/tone is clear and consistent throughout. Avoid using abbreviations that might not be common knowledge to the general public. 
• Translation services may be necessary depending on the demographic composition of your intended audience. Consider building funding into your budget for translation services. Miami-Dade County's  Official Hurricane Readiness Guide  for the 2023 season, includes information for residents to prepare before, during, and after a hurricane in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. In 2021, the  American Community Survey  (ACS) estimated that over 65% of Miami-Dade County residents spoke Spanish at home. According to a report on the  Haitian Diaspora in the U.S . released by the  Migration Policy Institute  in 2014, the Miami metropolitan area is home to more Haitian immigrants than any other U.S. metropolitan area. By releasing potentially life-saving information in three locally prevalent languages, Miami-Dade County is able to keep more residents informed than if they only released guides in English.  
• King County in Washington state has released several educational comics tailored to the demographics of its constituents. Their site includes a Stay Safe in the Heat informational short comic offered in  Amharic,    Arabic,   Chinese,   English,   French,   Korean,   Russian,   Somali,   Spanish,   Filipino,   Ukrainian,  and  Vietnamese.  King Country also offers  comic and coloring book resources  geared towards educating youth on environmental preparation measures recommended for the Washington climate. This is a great example of a municipality developing creative content that is accessible to a wide range of constituents.  

Where will the tool be housed and who will maintain it? 

• The resource can be posted on a website that is ideally freely accessible to the public. This accessibility often requires a working agreement with the organization’s engineers, web team, or whoever is responsible for maintaining the website presence. 
• Establish a data maintenance schedule based on how frequently your data sources are updated. Consider refreshing the data annually or semiannually.  

What kind of permissions and agreements need to be considered? 

• Data is available from a range of sources and at different levels of geographic specificity. Whether you are using free, publicly available data or purchasing data, or license agreements to use data, ensure that your team has a full understanding of any required data sharing agreements, citations, or permissions that need to be considered by your organization.  

Develop and publish a technical reference document  

• A document that details the data sources used, where these data sources are located and any data cleaning and processing done should be linked to the tool. Users can reference such a document to help navigate the tool or if they want to analyze the data by retrieving it directly from the source. Also, this document ensures tool transparency. Please see our  MAP 4.0 Technical Document  as an example.  

Create user-friendly “how-to” tools 

• While many of the public-facing data mapping tools are designed to be intuitive to most users, it is important to provide explanations to reduce potential user frustration. An accessible document outlining steps needed to use the tool is one option to consider. Increasingly, user-friendly resources such as YouTube how-to videos or on-screen tooltips that appear when the user hovers over an icon to provide more immediate fixes that reduce the need to scour documentation or contact a helpline.  ArcGIS StoryMaps  are great tools for creating tutorials and presenting information interactively. Videos can be embedded directly into a StoryMap along with text, images, and maps. Please note that ArcGIS requires a paid license, but this may be a worthwhile investment to consider for producing effective informational guides.  
• Here is an example of guiding users in how to access and orient themselves to MAP using embedded videos with accompanying text in StoryMap:

User interface and data visualization 

The thoughtful design and architecture of a housing and resilience resource tool or platform will make your tools stand out from competitors and bring visitors back for information again and again.

• Consider  Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance requirements  which remove unnecessary barriers and ensure equal access to content for people with disabilities. 
• There are several sites that provide ADA-accessible color pallets for free including  ColorBrewer  and  Coolors .  

Data layers and navigation 

• The ability for users to select and modify specific data sets or layers for specific purposes is an important consideration in the design of a mapping platform. When making decisions about data to include or exclude, consider “use cases;” that is, anticipate potential scenarios that users may wish to build with data to determine which datasets should ultimately be included and how they can be most effectively visualized. 
• While it can seem appealing to include absolutely everything related to the topic at hand, too much data can be unwieldy, make for confusing analyses, and make the tool slow to load. If you choose to include a large number of datasets, it is a good idea to limit which data layers a user can activate at a given time. Also, consider limiting the number of data layers a user can visualize on the map at one time. Spatialized information can be incredibly useful, but too many data layers at one time can decrease that utility by making the map incomprehensible and overwhelming the user. A good rule of thumb is to not exceed two data layers on a map at a given time.  

• When layering different data on a map, it is a good idea to consider incorporating patterns (i.e., stripes, crosshatching, dots, and shading) or symbols to represent differentiations in the data being visualized. It is also helpful to allow users to adjust the opacity of a data layer when viewing multiple layers at a time. This feature will allow users to highlight what they are most interested in conveying on the map.
• Below is a screenshot of MAP featuring cooling centers which are public facilities that have been identified by Miami-Dade County as locations for the public to visit if they do not have access to adequate cooling at home or work. MAP includes a proximity graphic to show areas within a 5, 10, and 15-minute estimated walking distance to each center. The three different cooling center icons are different colors but by using unique symbols it is easier for all users, regardless of any colorblindness condition, to be able to easily understand the differences on a map.

• Consider methods to export maps or data tables to a pre-defined PDF template, noting data sources and date of map creation, for users to print/embed/share in a variety of online or print platforms.

Plan for User Testing

Once your tool or mapping platform is live, it is a good idea to conduct user testing with a group of actual and potential end users that were not involved in the development process. Partners and stakeholders can be helpful in identifying and recruiting potential end users to participate. The feedback participants provide will allow you to refine the tool and determine areas where additional features and improvements should be implemented to better suit the needs of a wide range of users.

• For the CAMP project, our team conducted a virtual user testing exercise that was completed in an hour and a half via Zoom. Participants were sent a consent form to fill out prior to the facilitated discussion that included an overview of the basic MAP functionalities as well as follow-up questions to be answered once the participant had explored MAP. The facilitated discussion focused on identifying overall impressions of the tool (e.g., layout, design, available data), shared challenges, and intuitive features that should remain part of MAP based on their experiences when completing a set of pre-determined use case scenarios. We finished the session by requesting people offer discrete suggestions of recommended improvements that should be made to the tool.  
• When establishing a budget for a potential project, consider including funds for user testing so you are able to offer people incentives and refreshments for their time. 

Below are some fundamental components to consider as you begin to create a framework for the data components of the affordable housing and resilience resource you intend to construct.

The underlying data featured on our tools is frequently not always raw data directly downloaded from the original source. Rather, most of the data that comprises CCE’s tools must be cleaned and processed in some form before it is ready to be incorporated into our tools.

Effective data management is crucial in ensuring accuracy and consistency in online data tool development. Best practices on data management include establishing consistent and descriptive naming conventions to keep files organized. Consider keeping a saved copy of raw data in your files in case you need to reference them at a later date. When working on cleaning a raw data set, it might be necessary to conduct additional research to incorporate additional data to fill any empty cells in a spreadsheet. If the information missing from a dataset is not available, indicating a null value (e.g., -9999, N/A, or not avail.) for an empty cell of the data spreadsheet is appropriate. There are many different protocols that a team can establish when processing data. However your team chooses to proceed with cleaning data, any changes to the raw data set should be documented in an 'About' page or technical document for users to reference.

General Demographic Data

• Explore the US Census data to determine the most useful data points and update cycles for your purposes. CCE incorporates a substantial amount of data from the  American Community Survey   
• Consider data that is most important/relevant for your community: age, income, cost burden, housing characteristics (renter vs. owner), etc. 
• Make sure to update census tract shapefiles as the US Census changes these periodically   

Municipal Data

• Property information – parcel level data that is available from many municipalities’ open data resources and property appraiser's office
• Municipal boundaries – municipal metes and bounds, council/commission districts, school board districts, if applicable
• Transportation routes if desired – hubs/stations if Transit-Oriented Development is a priority for the tool

Affordable Housing Data

The  Furman Center  at New York University has developed  Local Housing Solutions , a program that includes a  Housing Needs Assessment  tool that can generate a report providing introductory information including measures related to racial and ethnic disparities in housing affordability as well as housing stock characteristics (including flood risk), among other indicators.

Mapping the landscape of affordable housing in your community:

• What typology and service provision distinctions are important in your neighborhood? Public Housing, Supportive Housing (e.g., Persistent Mental Illness, Formerly Homeless, etc.), Subsidized Housing (by city, state, HUD, etc.)

Understanding the availability of this data and what it shows:

• Unit counts? Age of building? Population served? Etc. 
• Funding programs – these can vary by area but consider including data about financing used for affordable housing developments and subsidy expiration dates, if applicable 
• Consult with local or state universities, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations that compile and oversee this data – this can differ by jurisdiction, but a good starting point is your local housing authority/department. For local municipalities in Florida, the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies:  Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse  is a useful resource of affordable housing data 

Examples of National Housing Toolkits:

•  National Multifamily Housing Council: Housing Affordability Toolkit  
•  National Association of Counties: Affordable Housing Toolkit for Counties 
•  PolicyLink: Affordable Housing - Equitable Development Toolkit  
•  PolicyLink: Housing / Anti-Displacement Tools  

Examples of Local Housing Toolkits:

•  Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County: Affordable Housing Toolkit  
•  Colorado Division of Housing: Affordable Housing Toolkit for local officials  

National Housing Data & Resource Hubs:

•  Eviction Lab: National Eviction Map & Data  
•  US HUD Open Data Site  

Resilience Data

Define what “resilience” means in your context and what you are hoping to show: 

• For example, sea level rise concerns – show flood zones, historic/projected sea level rise, tree coverage, elevation, septic/sewer, buildings with basements, and other coastal concerns

Examples of Local Resilience Toolkits:

•  Georgetown Climate Center: Adaptation Toolkit: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use  
•  Green Sanctuary Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton (UUFBR): Resilience Adaptation Community Tool Kit (ReACT)  
•  Sustainable Buildings Initiative:  Resilience Tool Kits & Guidelines 
•  Resilient NJ: Local Planning For Climate Change Toolkit  
•  King County-Cities Climate Collaboration: Climate Action Toolkit  
•  Miami Dade County Office of Resilience: Miami-Dade County Extreme Heat Action Plan   
•  Miami Dade County Office of Resilience: Understanding Heat Exposure in Miami-Dade County 

Examples of National Resilience Toolkits:

•  U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit  
•  U.S. EPA: Regional Resilience Toolkit  
•  Initiative on Climate Risk and Resilience Law: Electric Resilience Toolkit  
•  American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP) and Climate Resilience Consulting (CRC): Ready-to-Fund Resilience Toolkit  
•  Minderoo Foundation: Resilient Communities Framework  

Examples of Resilience Mapping:

•  Montgomery County: Community Heat Mapping in Montgomery County  
•   NOAA's Climate Program Office: The Climate Explorer  
•   US EPA: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool  
•  Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ): Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool  

Another source of national resilience data and resources is  CAKE: Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange .

Below is a breakdown of the different categories of resilience related data featured on CCE's Climate and Equity Mapping Platform and the source of each dataset.

Creating these sophisticated data-driven tools is only one piece of the puzzle; conveying this information in a format that enables communities to understand their vulnerabilities and develop thoughtful, equitable solutions is equally critical. Acknowledging the complexity of communicating about neighborhood-level housing, climate, and community dynamics requires constructive, responsive, and iterative communication methodology to enable community residents, neighborhood advocates, climate experts, and municipal leaders to participate in meaningful discussions and successfully use data to inform effective and responsive decision-making. Our office’s approach to community engagement is centered around three components including 1) our stakeholder advisory group, 2) our grassroots community partners as core members of the project team, and 3) community-based engagement workshops.

In our experience, engaging stakeholders early in the process of creating equitable housing and resilience tools and resources is critically important to ensuring that deliverables address a range of topics, viewpoints, and professional resources that might be missed if relying exclusively on the core project team members. Advisory team members can illuminate additional concepts to consider, question the importance/validity of certain project elements, and suggest other subject-matter experts and advocacy organization leaders who should be consulted.

• When identifying members of an advisory stakeholder committee, consider the types of expertise, recommendations, and partnerships that would be most advantageous to not only the design of equitable housing and resilience resources but also their ultimate dissemination in the community
• Be creative when considering potential stakeholders and think beyond your typical connections to bring in expertise that can be most useful to helping solve new or thorny issues 
• Engage the advisory stakeholder team on a regular basis (e.g., monthly, quarterly) and at important moments for input throughout the development process, providing clear areas on which you hope to seek their input and guidance 
• Consider breaking the advisory stakeholder committee into smaller subgroups for discrete tasks where specialized expertise and input would be more quickly gathered in a more intimate discussion format 

We convened a robust advisory stakeholder group on a quarterly basis via Zoom over the course of the Climate and Equity Mapping Platform (CAMP) project to guide the direction and focus of the project. Nearly 50 stakeholders with experience locally and nationally in municipal leadership, climate science, meteorology, public health, urban planning, community development, environmental advocacy, and other areas contributed to rich, trans-disciplinary conversations. We benefited tremendously from the ability to collaborate with distinguished experts in such diverse fields to inform our efforts to investigate the intersections of affordable housing, urban resilience and extreme heat.

Tools such as the  Resilience Policy Toolkit  and other equity resources should be built in collaboration with the communities that such tools are intended to assist. The resources are most effective when community concerns and priorities are considered early in the development process and communities are directly engaged and invested in the resulting resources. Engaging with community partner organizations can help to expand the reach of engagement efforts. These partners become locally trusted ambassadors, hosting workshops and feedback sessions throughout the development of tools to ensure that they incorporate recommendations from more voices. The tools that we have provided are iterative and grow/respond to community input and suggestions; this is an important principle to share with communities to emphasize the importance of consistent, ongoing community conversations. 

• Established, long-term community relationships are a great place to begin discussing the needs and hopes of local residents; however, creating new resources can be an impactful way to tap into wider networks and build traction and credibility with an expanded group of organizations and agencies. 
• Tools should be developed enough so that tangible products can be demonstrated to community groups but nimble enough that they can be modified to permit suggested modifications

Community engagement is the centerpiece of the successful deployment of any research tools and policy solutions.  

• We conducted five community engagement workshops in close collaboration with our partners at  South Florida Community Development Coalition (SFCDC) . The purpose of the workshops was to obtain practitioner and community input and feedback on the progress of the CAMP project prior to its final December 2022 launch.
• Participants included planners, housing advocates, municipalities, and nonprofits focused on equitable community development.  
• Participants raised a host of issues about the key data points they wanted to see, the value of the MAP tool and planned enhancements as part of CAMP, and broader neighborhood-based concerns about heat. 
• The invaluable input that community-based experts provided in these workshops helped ensure the CAMP project as a whole is as useful and responsive to community needs as possible. 
• Here is a StoryMap shared with the workshop participants prior to the December 2022 CAMP launch of MAP 4.0 to communicate the project background, approach, MAP 4.0 mockups and example analyses using data added to MAP as part of CAMP:

The challenges cities face today emerge from centuries of prior decision-making that have had lasting consequences on our urban fabric. While today’s conditions have been shaped by past actions, the solutions to addressing equity, affordability, and resilience challenges must be grounded in an understanding of the past to craft inclusive and effective outcomes for a healthier tomorrow.

With this in mind, this communications and engagement toolkit introduces a community-focused methodology to tackle the complex issues of housing affordability and environmental resilience. The strategies outlined within are guided by an ethos of collaboration that is grounded in community action. While the specific issues facing each region may vary, the toolkit is intentionally flexible to guide the development of an inclusive and strategic framework for shaping community-engaged equity and resilience planning.   

Flexibility is a fundamental precept in planning for a strong urban future. The ability to pivot and modify a course of action as circumstances require is crucial to shaping an effective response. Similarly, our intention is that this toolkit can be sufficiently nimble to serve a variety of conditions. This is a living tool; our goal is to add to this framework with input from visitors and users with new suggestions and examples of implementation successes. Do you have an idea you would like to see included? Please drop us a line at  civicengagment@miami.edu  with “Communications Toolkit” in the subject line.