March 2025

The Local Policy Lab has worked closely with the City of Lancaster over the past year to develop a detailed case study that describes how the city worked to prioritize, elevate and institutionalize resident engagement.

As the case study describes, a combination of local and national partnerships, support from community members and local elected officials, helped transform a mayoral initiative into the establishment of a Department of Neighborhood Engagement, the first in the City’s history, which acts as a central hub for resident engagement and community building programs. Lancaster’s work and success in getting to this point provides a powerful example for how other cities across the nation can work to institutionalize resident engagement in their structures.

LPL, in collaboration with Evolution Affairs, developed this toolkit as a useful resource to educate and support local governments.

The Toolkit includes tools and templates for all stages of resident engagement. These include an environmental scan of the local landscape, authentic community engagement, stakeholder mapping, power mapping, historical context, tips for messaging, education and more. The Toolkit is available to any city, organization or individual. In addition, LPL is using it to put concrete plans together with cities.