Our Services
GWFA consulting services generally fall into three broad categories that oftentimes overlap – Communications, Connections, and Community Development. We are passionate about advising and assisting our partners with endeavors that deliver benefits to diverse communities. Working with our clients/partners, GWFA creates and/or implements communication plans or strategies that connect government, people, businesses, and/or organizations to plan, design, and build community improvement projects, programs, and services.
We specifically advise and assist with: Communications, Community Outreach and Engagement Campaigns | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives | Small Business Development, Capital Project Development, and
Real Property Development Planning Efforts.
Creating Communications
We help you develop the right messages, materials, methods and means (strategies) to develop and/or communicate your community benefit/community development goals, plans, and projects. We can help you to plan inclusive public outreach and engagement strategies – including targeted outreach to historically underrepresented and underserved communities – usually Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. We can help ensure that your communications are culturally appropriate. Our services may include conducting demographic and other studies to identify community environments and to assess equity and social justice issues.
Making Connections
We help you make the right connections to foster relationships to achieve your community benefit/community development goals, plans, and projects. These connections could be for achieving inclusive, community-wide public outreach and engagement, or diversity, equity, and inclusion in contracting opportunities. We make connections by directly engaging with affected or targeted communities via briefings, presentations, stakeholder correspondence, public meetings, open houses, workshops, community events and meetings, work groups, focus groups and one-on-one meetings, surveys, door-to-door outreach, social media platforms, etc. (in person and virtual); We make connections by disseminating written and graphic materials (including translation into non-English languages) to affected or targeted communities. When it comes to community engagement, we help our clients connect and communicate with diverse audiences for the sake of giving information, getting input, creating and/or getting acceptance of their plans, projects, programs, and/or business offerings. The GWFA team also provides a multi-ethnic, multicultural face to our engagement that may be more receptive to BIPOC communities.
Planning, Evaluating, and Implementing Community Development
We help you choose the right policies, plans, programs, projects, and business offerings to implement community benefit/community development initiatives that are environmentally just, equitable, and inclusive. We specialize in applying equity and social justice principles, but also “common good”, sound development, and economic principles that will contribute to your planning, evaluation, and decision-making. GWFA can support your planning and evaluation with research, data analysis, recommendations, and reports. Our services include conducting equity impact reviews for planning capital projects; conducting feasibility studies for real property development and securing permits for such development; and assisting small business owners with planning and developing their businesses. We can also assist with community development planning from a project specific basis (transportation, land use) to a community or region-wide basis (neighborhood or community planning).
