In 2019, TransLink is embarked on the development of Transport 2050, a shared regional transportation strategy to shape the next 30 years of transportation in Metro Vancouver. As part of this process, Translink brought on CityHive to design, build and run a regional youth engagement process to mirror the public engagement process. CityHive convened a Youth Advisory Council, which includes a group of 20 young adults (18-30) from across the region with a wide breadth of interests, areas of expertise, and life experiences. The goals of the YAC are for council members to learn how to shape engagement process design, develop different engagement tools and core skills used in facilitating engagement sessions.
For each of Phase 1 (Fall 2019), Phase 2 (Spring 2021) of Transport 2050’s engagement process, each YAC member convened an engagement session of 10-20 young people (ages 13-30) within one of their own networks. As part of this process, CityHive facilitated onboarding and training sessions, worked closely with Translink to convene council meetings and design project materials, and provided facilitation support (including a facilitation prep guide) for the engagement processes to support YAC members. Financial support for logistics and materials are provided, as well as an honorarium for YAC members’ time. This engagement will help to shape the overall Transport2050 Plan being presented to the Mayors’ Council.

See report here

In order to better engage and connect with youth in the City of Richmond, CityHive was brought on to support the design and delivery of the inaugural cohort of the Richmond Youth Civic Engagement Program (YCEP). This free eight-week program provided opportunities for youth (15-23 years) to engage, develop skills and learn about local government. The program began in January and culminated in mid-March with youth project presentations to City Council. Participants learned directly from City staff and elected officials about how City decisions are made, ultimately co-designing projects that sparked their interest. The City of Richmond is interested in expanding this youth engagement program after its initial success.

With nearby cities like Seattle and Calgary implementing new scooter-share programs, the Downtown Vancouver BIA was interested in exploring what the future of scooters might look like in Vancouver. What would this mobility option bring to our city, and what might the unique challenges be? CityHive was brought on to lead a youth-focused virtual event where Millennials and Gen Zs could hear from local leaders working in mobility, transportation and accessibility and have an opportunity to ask questions and share feedback in small breakout rooms with representatives from city council and Translink. The event generated a series of big questions and reflections that the DVBIA and their partners could use to inform their actions and decisions moving forward.

The City of Vancouver is developing plans to add safe and accessible pedestrian and cycling paths to the Granville Bridge. To contribute to the engagement process, CityHive convened a walking tour + workshop for Metro Vancouverites aged 18-30. This hybrid “walk-shop” allowed youth to see and hear the plans in person (on the bridge) before ideating and sharing their reflections in a workshop setting at Roundhouse Community Centre. The ideas and input they offered helped refine the design and ensured that youth voices were heard in the planning process.

In 2020, Vancouver Coastal Health embarked on an engagement initiative to garner insights into their website and translation services. They conducted a series of focus groups with stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds as a part of their engagement process. CityHive led the delivery of a youth-centered workshop for youth in the health authority ages 18-30. The unique perspectives of youth, both in relation to their comfort with technology, as well as the lived experiences of many from immigrant families provided valuable feedback for the VCH team, ultimately informing their action plans moving forward.

BC Hydro is in the process of developing an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), commonly referred to as Clean Power 2040. BC Hydro’s IRP will outline how BC Hydro plans to provide reliable, affordable and clean electricity to meet customers’ demand now and into the future. The IRP sets out BC Hydro’s plan to meet future electricity demand in areas such as demand side management, infrastructure investments and contracts with IPPs.
A key component of this planning process is public consultation and engagement. Consultation with the Indigenous Nations, customers and the broader public on the IRP began on September 14th, 2020 and has allowed BC Hydro to receive customer input during the development of its long-term plans, an approach that is consistent with (BCUC) guidelines. On February 2nd, 2021, CityHive facilitated a virtual workshop with almost thirty youth (ages 14-18) from across the province. Their input provided a unique perspective of what young people see as priorities and allowed those who will be significantly impacted by the plans to have their voices heard.

In 2019, the City of Surrey established a Public Engagement Task Force. The focus of the Task Force was on moving beyond traditional public consultation to more innovative and unique solutions. One of the outcomes was the development of an Engagement Strategy and Toolkit. The development of these documents was led by Vancouver-based firm, HCMA.
CityHive was subcontracted to lead the development of the Youth portion of the strategy and toolkit, including developing a series of best practices to engage with youth in Surrey. In the Spring of 2020 CityHive began by interviewing youth-service programmers to develop a baseline for the development of a Strategy draft. Once the draft was complete, CityHive hosted two youth focus groups in the Fall of 2020 to workshop and edit the draft to ensure it fully reflected the needs and desires of local youth. The input offered by the programmers and youth focus group participants fed directly into the wording of the strategy and toolkit, ensuring that their priorities and local context were centered. At the end of 2020, the final complete strategy (including contributions from a variety of other stakeholders) was shared with the City of Surrey.
Collaborators: HCMA (partner); SIYAC – Surrey Indigenous Youth Advisory Committee (focus group partner)

In Fall 2017, Natural Resources Canada embarked upon Generation Energy, a cross-Canada public consultation process to culminate in a forum to define the vision for the future of Canada’s energy system. To ensure that youth voices were centred in this process, CityHive co-led, together with Student Energy, an engagement process for young leaders across Canada to become and host community dialogues for their peers. Together, we led the strategic design, implementation and reporting for this project.
The process includes a competitive application process for Youth Champions from across the country to host dialogues in their communities, represent youth voices at the national summit and collectively create the Youth Voices Report – a pan-Canadian vision of what young people expect for the future of our energy system. With 300 young people from 11 provinces and territories contributing, and over 7,000 Canadians participating online, the 2017 Youth Voices Report is a declaration of what the next generation of Canadians believe we need to achieve a sustainable energy future.See report here

In 2017, CityHive conducted the ‘Millennial Engagement Consultation’ for the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association. With 34% of the Vancouver population being under 30 and the DVBIA’s finding that 75% of the workforce will consist of Millennials by 2030, CityHive supported the DVBIA in strategizing how to adapt to this new audience, and saw the engagement, empowerment and integration of Millennials as imperatives.
CityHive led a 6 month process to generate actionable recommendation for the DVBIA in its internal and external practices. Through interviews with DVBIA staff, the CityHive Team collected information on the roles and responsibilities of individual staff and sought to understand how the organization could better engage Millennials. CityHive also ran a series of Idea Jams, or youth focus groups, to generate ideas and feedback on the future of engagement for the DVBIA. In the final phase, CityHive produced a SWOT Analysis and Recommendations for the DVBIA in regards to Millennial Engagement.

CityHive worked with Generation Squeeze on a project that sought to identify the role and power of Metro Vancouver youth in shaping local housing policy through the Generation Squeeze ‘Code Red Campaign’.
CityHive worked as the local organizers in Metro Vancouver, to identify opportunities for municipal housing policy victories benefiting youth and facilitated a ‘Code Red’ meet-up with youth once per month.

SFU’s Faculty of Environment partnered with CityHive, Participedia.net, Women Transforming Cities, the Suzuki Elders and others to host this invitational roundtable. We convened leaders, researchers, and students from diverse sectors – universities, civic society, policy think tanks, government and funders – committed to intersectionality and innovation that takes into account the complex relationship between women and climate change. The aim was to share and mobilize knowledge about the participatory methods that foster women’s leadership in climate change solutions.

SFU’s Faculty of Environment partnered with CityHive, Participedia.net, Women Transforming Cities, the Suzuki Elders and others to host this invitational roundtable. We convened leaders, researchers, and students from diverse sectors – universities, civic society, policy think tanks, government and funders – committed to intersectionality and innovation that takes into account the complex relationship between women and climate change. The aim was to share and mobilize knowledge about the participatory methods that foster women’s leadership in climate change solutions.

In 2019, CityHive partnered with Vancity Credit Union for the Young Leaders Delegation to the Global Alliance for Banking on Values Summit 2019: Migrants, #MeToo, and Melting Ice Caps. CityHive recruited 3O youth from across BC, Ontario and Washington. The purpose of the project was to provide young people from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to engage in this powerful event. CityHive facilitated pre-summit workshops to prepare youth for the event, hosted a social event for networking and connecting the group, attended the summit alongside the youth, and convened a post-event debrief to create a final report from the youth’s perspective.

The Vancouver City Planning Commission (VCPC) hosted a day-long 2018 Summit on the theme of “A City for All” exploring how to better plan for a more resilient city and more sustainable communities based on reconciliation, meaningful inclusiveness and equity.
CityHive assisted with logistics and assistance with the program. The workshop led to the identification of three themes: belonging, equity, and the design of places and spaces; and, in addition to resiliency, two overarching frameworks: intersectionality and reconciliation.
Check out the Final Report here!