Consulting Services

I offer a range of social planning, research and community engagement consulting services.

Here are some suggestions:

 

 

 

 

 

Social Planning

  • Strategic advice on policies related to density increases, sustainability, transit-oriented development (TOD), proposed density increases
  • Assistance with media programs related to community reactions to proposed density increases
  • Community visioning policies, approaches and methods
  • Review of organisational plans, polices and guidelines
  • Crafting of guidelines form research and policy information
  • Assessments and evaluations
  • Staff-development workshops
  • Preparation of functional briefs for develops and municipalities to include social factors

Community Engagement

"Vote with Your Hands", Granville

  • Advice on how to bring an understanding of community health issues iinto your engagement processes
  • Advice on designing and implementing community engagement programs that yield real results
  • Training for staff and community members in community engagement, workshop facilitation and recording and related tasks
  • Inspirational presentations and workshops about community engagement models and approaches: including “Working at the Edge” and fostering creativity in engagement processes.
  • Tested, reliable approaches for evaluating your processes so you can refine your approaches
  • Engagement processes for children and young people
  • Community engagement with sustainability (“Kitchen Table Sustainability”)
  • The SpeakOut Model: workshops, presentations, guidelines and practical advice for implementing this model
  • Developing manuals, checklists, policies, templates and all the ingredients of a community engagement culture for an organisation such as a local council, a developer, a state or federal government department or agency
  • How to build community capacity about complex technical matters
  • How to be truly inclusionary in your engagement processes
  • Community engagement and governance: the missing link
  • Engagement processes that are nourishing and support personal growth
  • Help with understanding where the “cutting edge” is in community engagement

Housing Design

Display Opportunities in Housing for Older People

 

 

 

  • Advice on healthy housing: what does it mean to design a “healthy” house?
  • Advice on site planning and design: from the residents’ perspective
  • Post-occupancy evaluations of housing and residential areas
  • Community engagement processes targeted to housing planning and design issues
  • Guidelines for higher density housing
  • Advice on the reasons for resident opposition to density increases
  • Children’s needs in higher density housing
  • Housing design for older people and people with disability
  • Housing design for different cultural groups
  • Workshops and presentations on the deeper meanings of housing
  • Lessons from five years as an owner builder of an ecological house

Parks and Public Open Spaces


 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Advice on the health benefits of planning and design of parks, playgrounds and public spaces
  • Lessons from “biophilia”: how Nature in urban areas can have health benefits for communities
  • Environmental psychology and user needs in public parks: lessons from the research
  • The healing benefits of Nature in towns and cities: lessons from research and practice
  • Site planning and design: from the users’  perspective
  • Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and SafeGrowth considerations
  • Understanding the limitations of first-generation CPTED and what second-generation CPTED has to offer
  • Needs of children and young people in public spaces
  • Community engagement processes that yield real advice about parks and public spaces
  • Site-planning and design guidelines for parks and public spaces
  • Research into design of public spaces
  • Evaluations of public space planning and design
  • Workshops and presentations on “sacred landscapes”: how to map and protect local places that are precious to your community

Please contact me directly by email at wendy@sarkissian.com.au or by telephone:  0402 966 284 (international: + 61 402 966 284).