Connect the Dots is launching new ways to work with you, based on our longstanding experience and expertise in engagement work. Services we’ve always offered, including our award-winning ones, are bundled to make it clearer what we do best!
Explore each service to learn what we deliver and who should use it!
Engagement Studio
Connect the Dots provides end-to-end stakeholder and public engagement services designed to support you at every step of the participation process. We work alongside you, from early strategy through implementation and reporting, to ensure engagement is thoughtful, creative, accessible, and effective.
We help you develop clear engagement plans and practical tactical guides, design accessible and impactful communication materials, lead hands-on engagement and feedback-gathering activities, and translate what we hear into informative reports that connect all voices to decision-making.
Check out this project featuring Engagement Studio services: City of Philadelphia: Framing the Future of the Roundhouse.
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What We Deliver
Engagement Strategy & Planning
- Engagement strategy workshops
- Stakeholder engagement strategy documents
- Communication and outreach plans
- Event and feedback gathering guides
Accessible, Innovative Materials & Engagement Design
- Survey design
- Communication Sharekit and outreach toolkit
- Meeting boards, presentations, and materials
- Event layouts, agendas, and run-of-show documents
Engagement Implementation & Facilitation
- Surveys and questionnaires
- Workshops and charrettes
- Focus groups and interviews
- Pop-ups and event tabling
Analysis & Reporting
- Feedback collection, data entry, and data organization
- Evaluation, interpretation, and summarization of feedback
- Event tactic summary reports
- Outreach and engagement insight reports
Who This Service is For
- Consultants needing trusted engagement subconsultants for complex projects across sectors like transportation, planning, infrastructure, and more.
- Public agencies issuing RFPs or RFQs for stakeholder and public engagement support.
- Project teams seeking end-to-end engagement support or extra capacity.
- Decision makers looking for clear, public-informed input to guide policies or projects.
- Nonprofits and community organizations leading accessible, representative, and human-centered initiatives.
Engagement Partner
As a thought partner, we will support you in shaping engagement strategies for individual projects or your organization as a whole through guiding an initiative start-up, providing one-time advisory support, or ongoing training or mentorship to establish the infrastructure, tools, and practices needed to embed meaningful public participation into your work.
Whether we’re helping your team develop internal processes, improve staff capacity, or refine engagement approaches, we combine strategic guidance with hands-on support to ensure your organization can lead projects that are accessible, representative, and human-centered.
Check out this project featuring Engagement Partner services: The Welcoming Center: Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers
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What You Can Expect When You Partner with Us
Project and program set up that includes launching initiatives or strengthening ongoing programs.
Co-creation and advisory support to walk through deliverables together, provide 1-1 advisory sessions, and guide you through implementation.
Feedback and accountability partner to help monitor progress, troubleshoot challenges, and ensure engagement goals are met.
Organizational capacity building that enhances internal structures and meets organizational goals.
Engagement strengthening and learning that identifies lessons learned, creates improvement plans, and guides teams in embedding meaningful engagement practices.
Engagement expertise to support organizations and projects in designing and implementing meaningful and effective engagement.
Who This Service is For
- Organizations or teams building engagement capacity across projects and programs.
- Project leaders and managers seeking guidance on planning, implementing, and evaluating engagement.
- Decision makers creating structures, workflows, and policies for ongoing, high-quality participation.
- Planning, design, and project teams needing hands-on coaching to integrate engagement effectively.
- Organizations accessing specialized expertise to enhance engagement without hiring full-time staff.
Engagement Academy
Connect the Dots develops and facilitates customized, hands-on training programs designed to strengthen your team’s outreach and engagement skills and strategic mindset. We deliver sessions tailored for your staff, grantees, or broader network, equipping participants with practical tools.
We offer sessions in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid format, and can structure them to be co-branded, revenue-shared, commissioned directly, or offered as a value-add for your team. Our sessions focus on key areas, such as facilitation, active listening, conflict management, outreach strategies, engagement strategy development, and more.
Check out this project featuring Engagement Academy services: Project for Public Spaces: Engagement 101 Training
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Training Designed for You
Baseline evaluation that assesses participants’ existing skills and your organization’s needs to inform training design.
Single workshops designed as one-off, informative sessions focused on specific engagement skills or topics.
Stackable series (100-300 level courses) that build skills over time, with optional partnered certificates.
Multi-session cohorts that guide participants through multiple sessions toward a tangible deliverable.
Impact evaluation that measures learning outcomes, assesses effectiveness, and identifies opportunities to apply skills in practice.
Who Benefits from this Training
- Consultants needing trusted engagement subconsultants for complex projects across sectors like transportation, planning, infrastructure, and more.
- Public agencies issuing RFPs or RFQs for stakeholder and public engagement support.
- Project teams seeking end-to-end engagement support or extra capacity.
- Decision makers looking for clear, public-informed input to guide policies or projects.
- Nonprofits and community organizations leading accessible, representative, and human-centered initiatives.
Phase Zero Research
Based on our award-winning Phase Zero approach, we equip you with actionable, locality-based insights and context to shape policy, programs, products, and strategy. We go beyond surface-level data to understand the lived experiences, motivations, cultures, and realities that influence public members’ behaviors and dynamics.
We collaborate with you to deliver focused, manageable research for a wide range of needs, including policy development, grant strategy, RFP creation, Public Engagement Plans, program refinement, and product or service design. Our work ensures your decisions are grounded in reality, responsive to the local context, and built to succeed.
Check out this project featuring Phase Zero Research: Philadelphia Airport: Mexican Peoples Outreach and Engagement
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What Our Research Informs
Policy making that grounds decisions in the experiences and goals of the people impacted.
Grant preparation that ensures proposals reflect real-world context and priorities.
RFP & RFQ development that aligns proposals with local context.
Program design or refinement to optimize programs based on lived experiences and contextual insights.
Public Engagement Plans that shape engagement strategies that are actionable, accessible, and effective.
Product or service design that builds offerings that meet the needs of the people you serve.
Public-facing organization units or departments whose structures, roles, and initiatives are shaped to better serve stakeholders.
Who Benefits from this Research
- Decision makers seeking locality-based community-grounded insights.
- Project teams preparing grants, RFPs/RFQs, or new initiatives.
- Teams refining programs, services, or organizational units.
- Professionals across public agencies, nonprofits, research, and advocacy.
- Organizations launching products, services, or initiatives grounded in real-world context.