Why choose CTC for your training?

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead.

 A poster with these words hangs in my office and sums up what I love about P2 – people coming together, rolling up their sleeves and making a difference. It is also what I love about training. Each class is a small group of thoughtful, committed people coming together to learn how they can make a difference in the way their organizations engage others in decision-making. And each class is an opportunity for me to learn from these passionate individuals. For this I am grateful.

Throughout her career Gay has been drawn to working with clients who realize the benefits of involving stakeholders in decision-making. After a successful career in government, not-for-profit, education and the private sector she began consulting. Gay has provided strategic council, and designed and implemented engagement programs for a wide range of clients including municipal government, regulators, corporations, school boards and industry associations. A number of her projects have been cited as “raising the bar” for engagement practices. Gay is a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) and an active member of IAP2.  She is currently Co-Chair for the 2020 North America conference in Banff, an assessor for the IAP2 Canada Certification Program and serves on the board of the IAP2 Wild Rose Chapter  

Lara completed the IAP2 Foundations courses in 2008 and found the courses to be transformative. When the opportunity presented itself to become a trainer, she quickly took up the challenge. She became a licensed trainer in 2014 and in 2019 became a  Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) . She loves sharing best practices and experiences of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to public participation. She loves meeting people from a diversity of backgrounds and coming together to continue to make the practice stronger. One of her favourite quotes is by Rumi “When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those that have never left home.”

Lara has been working in the field of public participation for the last 14 years. Her experience is both from the municipal (The City of Calgary) and consulting perspectives. She enjoys working on projects in diverse fields including community development, land use planning, transportation, open spaces, law and the arts. She completed her certificate in positive psychology and puts those principles into her practice where possible. Outside of public participation, Lara is passionate about yoga.

Welcoming people into your P2 world can be scary, intimidating and also incredible. Wondering if people have everything they need to meaningfully participate? Do they care about the outcome or are they only interested in what’s in it for them? So many questions. Good P2 can be a journey that leads to relationships, understanding and yes, quite often joint ownership of problems and solutions. Good training helps to ensure that you both master and enjoy that adventure. 

Amelia is a consultation strategist, practitioner, professional facilitator and capacity builder. Over the past twenty-plus years, Amelia has been successfully involved in the development of major policies, projects and plans from design to implementation, ensuring the processes are inclusive. She has worked with governments, public organizations, nonprofits and private companies in multiple sectors including community development, education, governance, labour, land-use planning, transit and transportation. Her ultimate goal with any P2 project/process, is to find an innovative approach that supports both community and organizational values and objectives and leads to helpful deliverables and a positive outcome. Her award-winning solutions have earned international recognition. 

Amelia was previously the Executive Manager of IAP2 Canada (2015-2021) and USA (2014-2019) and IAP2 Canada’s first President. In those roles she did her best to successfully champion “good” P2. She became an IAP2 licensed trainer in 2014. 

Living in what has been called the post truth era brings a unique set of challenges to people involved in public processes. There is cynicism, mistrust and exhaustion abounding. And, there is also the opportunity to flip the narrative. This is where great public participation processes come in. Since process is just as important as the outcome, good public participation processes can bring people closer to each other and result in great decisions for stronger, more inclusive and resilient communities. 

Tracey designs public participation processes so that people can explore ideas, opportunities and issues, enabling groups to learn together and take action. Tracey’s project involvement has focused on complex and/or controversial projects in the areas of accessibility, age friendliness, waste management, energy, sustainability, public water and wastewater system management, municipal planning, transportation infrastructure and public transit, locally and internationally. It has become very clear that no two projects or communities are alike. The IAP2 practice framework and all of the supporting concepts provide a valuable roadmap to designing meaningful, inclusive engagement approaches that are tailored for each context and support a sustainable outcome. 

Tracey became an IAP2 licensed trainer in 2020. She is a certified Master Public Participation Professional (MCP3), a registered professional planner (RPP), and certified professional facilitator (CPF) with over two decades of professional experience in public participation, facilitation, communications and strategic planning.