Durham Strategic Plan Dashboard

Shared Economic
Prosperity

Create a Safer Community Together

Connected, Engaged, and Inclusive Communities

Innovative and High Performing Organization

Thriving and Vibrant Environment

Status Indicator: In Progress | On Hold | Complete/Ongoing

Initiative: 3.13 Develop tools to support information-sharing between the City and communities

Connected, Engaged, & Inclusive Communities

Description

This effort is focused on centering equity in community engagement processes to ensure that historically underserved communities and neighborhoods participate in the decision-making processes. Our approach includes creating tools to ensure equity by increasing the amount, frequency, and quality of information shared between the City and the community. This encourages more frequent and sustained information-sharing, coordination, and collaboration across City departments, while also building more community trust.

Key Measures & Data Analysis

The number of recorded community conversations increased significantly in FY26, largely driven by Budget Community Conversations, following lower activity in FY25.

This increase reflects improved capture and organization of engagement data and strengthens the City’s ability to share and use community input across departments.

Community Conversations Uploaded

Why is it important?

The purpose of this initiative is to prioritize investment in and engagement with communities that have historically been excluded from or harmed by policy decisions. Intentional engagement and information-sharing with residents informs improvements to critical community infrastructure. With a focus on historically disinvested communities, these infrastructure investments can address disparities and promote equity.

What have we been doing?

Staff have focused on improving systems that capture and organize community input so it can be shared across departments and inform decision-making. This work includes expanding the Be Heard Durham platform and developing a centralized CRM to track community engagement contacts and conversations.

Key activities include:

Uploading and organizing community conversations in Be Heard Durham.
Identifying themes and insights from community feedback.
Building a centralized CRM and tagging system for engagement contacts.

What's next?

Work to improve engagement tools and information sharing will continue through the following activities:

Be Heard Durham Portal Update – Launching the updated portal and continuing to upload new engagement conversations.
Improved Data Sharing – Convening staff to strengthen processes for sharing engagement insights across departments.
CRM Guidance and Training – Finalizing staff guidance and training materials for consistent CRM use.
Data Standardization – Standardizing contact fields and tags to improve reporting and usability.
Governance and Reporting – Aligning engagement data practices with broader data governance efforts.

City Website Home Page: Durham, NC | Official Website (durhamnc.gov)
Budget Website Page: Budget & Management Services Department | Durham, NC (durhamnc.gov)

Budget and Management Services Department
Office of Performance and Innovation
Strategy and Performance Division