Los Angeles County Restorative Justice Village Master Plan

Issue

In January 2021, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion for the development of a Restorative Justice Village Master Plan. The Master Plan is meant to build upon the Vignes Interim Housing Project, creating a “village” of temporary, transitional, and permanent housing, as well as wrap-around care services for residents in need.

Solution

LA County selected NAC Architects to lead the design and development of the Master Plan, and NAC brought on North Star Alliances to handle the development of an aligned community outreach and engagement strategy, knowing that outreach to key stakeholders and neighbors was critical to the Master Plan’s success. NSA put together a comprehensive, multi-phased approach to effectively engage the various stakeholders and communities surrounding the Master Plan area. The strategy was centralized around preparing for and conducting two phases of “listening sessions” with sets of stakeholders, during which the Master Plan team would encourage active listening and participation from attendees as they shared their vision - and later a draft - of the Master Plan. Specific tactics NSA outlined in the strategy included:

• Identifying key audiences and a set of nearly 200 stakeholders to include in an outreach list.
• Developing internal and external outreach materials to be used when connecting with target audiences about the Master Plan and the development process.
• Drafting a thoughtful outreach plan using listening sessions as a way to engage the community and bring critical feedback back to the larger team as they develop the Master Plan.
• Outlining a detailed reporting process to ensure no feedback or information is lost throughout the outreach and engagement period.

Results

NSA’s outreach and engagement strategy was included in the final Restorative Justice Village Master Plan Scoping Document, which was shared with LA County staff in Winter 2021 for their review and approval.