General

A participatory process is a structured sequence of activities: sharing input through a survey, making proposals, discussing them in community meetings, prioritizing them, tracking what happens. It is designed to work through a specific question together and arrive at meaningful decisions.

The active process on this site is Phase 4 Engagement Planning, which is preparing for Phase 4 of OUSD's Financial Stabilization Plan beginning in Fall 2027. It moves through phases: first listening to what families, students, and staff have to say about the conditions for meaningful engagement; then drafting and discussing the questions Phase 4 must answer; then aligning on shared criteria for how engagement should happen; and finally tracking what comes of all of it through our public Accountability dashboard.

Other examples of participatory processes outside of OUSD include participatory budgeting (where community members propose ideas, see their costs, and vote on what to fund), strategic planning processes for cities or organizations, collaborative drafting of policies and regulations, and processes for designing public spaces. What they have in common is a clear purpose, a defined sequence of phases, and a commitment that community input shapes what happens at the end.