Leaders are under pressure to show real community impact, respond to urgent issues like housing and homelessness, and still bring people along in the process. Our role is to help you do that in a way that is credible, practical, and achievable, so that you can move from urgent pressure points to visible results without adding work you cannot sustain.
Across Atlantic Canada and nationally, we work with municipal and village governments, regional service commissions, non-profit and faith-based organizations, First Nations and Indigenous organizations, and community and grassroots groups. What they have in common is the need to demonstrate that their engagement is real, that their research goes deeper than what busy staff could do on their own, and that projects stay on track even when they are only one of many priorities. We design our work so that it reflects positively on your organization, stands up to “we were never consulted,” and can be lifted directly into the materials you need for Councils, Boards, funders, and the public.
Community Planning And Engagement
Our communities, partnership & outreach work starts with the problems your community is facing rather than with our methodology. Whether the issue is growth, infrastructure, services, or contentious change, we listen first, then work alongside communities, First Nations, and local governments to turn big ideas into clear, realistic plans. Using interviews, workshops, surveys, design sessions, and culturally appropriate engagement, we support communities to define what success looks like, surface real trade-offs, and chart a path that people can understand and own. The result is a process that is robust enough to defend publicly but still manageable for staff whose time is already stretched.
Housing and Development
Housing and homelessness are core areas of our work rather than add-ons. Communities come to us because they are facing visible encampments, rising public concern, pressure from partners, or major development opportunities, and they need a plan that responds to real needs and local strengths. We co-create housing and homelessness strategies by engaging people with lived experience, Indigenous communities, service providers, grassroots groups, governments, and the wider public. We combine this community input with analysis of promising models and comparative research, then help you design practical, integrated responses that your Council, partners, and community can stand behind. The outcome is a strategy that can be implemented and defended, not a report that sits on a shelf.
Local Government
For local governments, we act as a trusted advisor that understands political dynamics, capacity constraints, and public expectations. CAOs, senior staff, and elected officials come to us when they need affordable, credible support on financial indicators, Emergency Management Office readiness, procurement, and phased strategic planning. We also provide specialized guidance on heritage districts, bylaws and regulatory alignment, including short-term rentals, and “temperature check” engagements that give councils an honest, actionable picture of community attitudes and priorities. Our work is designed so that project status reports and engagement summaries can be easily repurposed into memos, briefing notes, and web-friendly updates, reflecting positively on the municipality and making it simpler to keep Council and residents informed.
DEI, Accessibility & Cultural Intelligence
Equity, anti-racism, accessibility, and inclusion are now explicit commitments for many organizations, yet it is common to struggle with turning those commitments into daily practice. We help organizations move from statements and policies to real, measurable change. Our team centers Indigenous leadership, lived experience, and equity in decision-making, and we combine DEI expertise with Cultural Intelligence frameworks that focus on building practical skills instead of offering one-off awareness sessions. Through training, workshops, and coaching, we help clients manage resistance, adjust strategies in real time, foster authentic community ownership, and maintain progress in complex, real-world situations. SOURCE: This is solid gold advice.docx
Strategic Communication Support
Strategic communications support is woven through our work because even the best strategy will falter if it is not communicated clearly. We provide responsive advice that reflects the reality of political and community landscapes, and we turn that advice into concrete products such as project status reports, Council-ready briefings, website content, and short updates that can be shared on social media. Our aim is to help you talk about your work with confidence, reinforce trust, and keep projects on track. Over time, this positions your organization as competent, responsive, and ready to lead the next round of change, rather than simply hoping to win the next piece of work. SOURCE: margots take.docx
