We understand the past,

Supporting and Facilitating

As consultants, we work in many different places and with clients and communities who have widely varying aspirations, needs and backgrounds. Our primary aim is always to support the people we are working with (not just ‘for’), providing them with additional expertise so that changes they want to bring about can be achieved and managed.

We believe that consultants working internationally must first understand the particular cultural contexts of the countries, regions and places in which they are working. Often, the most valuable contribution we can make is to facilitate and support local professionals and communities in managing the changes they want to achieve and need to respond to.

We offer support in many different forms, including:

• “toolkit” development;
•  capacity building;
•  training;
• mentoring;
•  study tours;
•  project management.

Whatever spatial planning strategies and mechanisms are developed, the people who will be affected by the changes intended must be engaged in the planning process if it is to be effective and achieve sustainable results. For any plan to work, community and stakeholder buy-in is essential.

Stakeholder engagement and consultation is central to much of the work we undertake and we have gained experience in using a wide range of techniques and media to inform people about issues, and involve them in the development of visions, objectives, strategies and policies. Engagement and consultation methods we use frequently include:

• consultation workshops;
• charettes;
• Mind-mapping;
• PlaceChecks;
• seminars and symposia;
• questionnaires;
• interactive web-sites and social media.