08/29/2026
Learn From Communities Around the World
Kendall-Whittier residents do not have to reinvent community organizing, resident participation or neighborhood democracy from scratch.
Universities, community organizations, governments and international organizations around the world have published free guides for residents and communities. They cover organizing neighbors, sharing power, getting residents into decision-making, community planning, housing and land use, accessibility, advocacy, public accountability and dealing with government and other institutions.
Many of these websites are written in English. Others are in Spanish or other languages. Most ordinary webpages can also be translated using the translation feature built into a web browser. Downloaded PDFs and other files sometimes require an extra translation step.
These resources are not presented as rules that Tulsa must follow. They are examples, tools and standards that Kendall-Whittier residents can learn from, compare and adapt.
University of Kansas Community Tool Box
The Community Tool Box is one of the largest free collections of community-building information online. It includes more than 300 how-to sections, shorter toolkits, checklists, examples and troubleshooting help. Material is available in several languages.
Useful starting places include:
* Community Tool Box — Learn a Skill: more than 300 step-by-step sections on community work. (Community Tool Box)
* Community Tool Box — Toolkits: 16 shorter guides covering participation, advocacy, policy change, coalitions, planning, leadership, evaluation and other work. (Community Tool Box)
* Conjuntos de Herramientas — Español: the KU toolkits in Spanish. (Community Tool Box)
* Troubleshooting Guide: help with problems such as low participation, opposition, conflict, weak leadership and lack of action. (Community Tool Box)
* Best Change Processes: research-based practices for organizing, planning, leadership, action and accountability. (Community Tool Box)
* Help Taking Action: KU’s collection of action guides, courses, best-practice databases and other assistance. (Community Tool Box)
* Ask an Advisor: KU also allows people doing community work to submit questions for free guidance. (Community Tool Box)
Resident Power and Participatory Democracy
* People Powered — Global Resource Center: one of the best places to continue exploring. It contains hundreds of guides, tools and case studies from countries around the world and can be filtered by language, country and type of participation. (People Powered)
* Participedia: a worldwide database of real examples of public participation and democratic innovation. Residents can look up methods and compare what communities have actually done in other cities and countries. (Participedia)
* International Association for Public Participation — IAP2: internationally used standards and resources for distinguishing between simply informing people and actually involving, collaborating with or empowering them. (IAP2)
* OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation: detailed guidance for designing meaningful public participation, available directly in English and Spanish. (OECD)
* Involve — United Kingdom: a large free knowledge base on public participation, decision-making, deliberation and community engagement. (Involve)
* Council of Europe — Democratic Governance Tools: tools for civil participation, local decision-making, deliberative democracy and citizens’ assemblies. (Portal)
Neighborhood Power and Resident-Led Development
* Asset-Based Community Development Institute: a worldwide network built around the idea that residents, local associations and neighborhood assets should drive community development rather than institutions simply doing things to communities. Its resource library includes guides specifically about resident-centered neighborhood organizing. (Abc Institute)
* Coady Institute — ABCD Resources: manuals and examples of citizen-led development from Canada, India, Egypt, Ghana and other parts of the world. (Coady Institute)
* Nurture Development: extensive free material on citizen-led community development and the principle that institutions sometimes need to lead by stepping back and supporting resident action rather than controlling it. (Nurture Development)
* Local Trust / Big Local — United Kingdom: resources drawn from a major long-term experiment in resident-led, neighborhood-level community development. (Local Trust)
* Tamarack Institute — Canada: community-engagement tools, including a toolkit describing dozens of different ways to involve communities and guidance for online participation. (Tamarack Community)
Neighborhood Planning, Housing and Land Use
* UN-Habitat — Our City Plans: a large international toolbox for participatory urban planning. It provides step-by-step planning tools that can be adapted to local neighborhoods and cities. (Our City Plans by UN-Habitat)
* UN-Habitat — Meaningful Public Participation in Spatial Planning: particularly useful for zoning, neighborhood plans, development and land-use decisions because it deals specifically with public participation in planning. (UN-Habitat)
* UN-Habitat — Building Bridges Through Participatory Planning: practical tools for involving residents, community groups, nonprofits and local government in planning together. (UN-Habitat)
* UN-Habitat — Her City: tools for involving women and girls in public-space and urban-planning decisions, with lessons that can also be useful for broader inclusive neighborhood planning. (UN-Habitat)
Equity, Accessibility and Who Gets to Participate
* Philadelphia Equitable Community Engagement Toolkit: unusually practical material about power, trust, community leadership, language access, disability access, collecting input, sharing decision-making power, disagreements, accountability and following through after engagement. It also provides downloadable worksheets and templates. (Engagement Toolkit)
* Inclusive Participation Toolbox: an international resource focused on meaningful participation by people with disabilities and organizations representing them. It includes checklists, case studies and practical material on reducing barriers to participation. (CBM Participation)
* Involve — Digital Engagement: useful for residents who cannot or do not want to participate only through traditional in-person meetings. It specifically discusses both same-time and asynchronous participation. (Involve)
Community Power in Scotland
Scotland is worth examining closely because community participation there goes considerably beyond simply asking residents for comments.
* Scottish Government — Community Empowerment: information about community rights, participatory budgeting, community ownership and ways residents can influence public decisions and services. (Scottish Government)
* Scottish Community Development Centre: practical community-development resources, participation tools and material on community empowerment and co-production. (SCDC - We believe communities matter)
* Community Empowerment Toolkit — Aberdeen: practical tools for people who want to take action in their own communities as well as institutions seeking to engage them. (Community Planning Aberdeen)
* Community Participation Requests: Scotland even provides a process through which community groups can formally seek involvement in improving public services and outcomes. (Scottish Government)
Resources From Latin America and the Spanish-Speaking World
These are especially useful because Spanish-speaking Kendall-Whittier residents can use many of them without translation.
* Nuevo León, Mexico — Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana: a large collection of Spanish-language tools for neighborhood groups, informal organizations, public participation, collaborative work and evaluating whether participation is actually working. (Participación Ciudadana)
* Ollin, Mexico — Participation Toolkit: tools designed to help people organize democratic community decision-making, including participatory budgeting. (Ollin A.C.)
* Costa Rica — Manual de Participación Ciudadana: a government manual of tools for residents, community actors and institutions working together on issues affecting their communities. (MIVAH)
* Rosario, Argentina — Manual de Herramientas para la Participación Ciudadana: methods and activities designed to place residents at the center of public-policy processes. (CILA / Ciudades en Acción)
* El Salvador — Caja de Herramientas para la Participación Ciudadana: tools produced by civil-society organizations and a university for citizen organizations and municipal participation. (Repositorio Institucional FUNDE)
* Poder Ciudadano, Argentina — Herramientas para la Participación Ciudadana: material covering access to public information, public hearings, citizen recommendations, monitoring government and other ways residents can influence public policy. (Poder Ciudadano)
Civil Society, Advocacy and Accountability
* CIVICUS — Participatory Governance Toolkit: international tools covering access to public information, citizen voice, advocacy, public deliberation, government accountability and participatory decision-making. (CIVICUS Global Alliance)
* CIVICUS Toolkits Library: a much larger global collection covering advocacy, civic space, networks, inclusion, accountability, communication and citizen-generated data. (CIVICUS Publications)
Keep Exploring
No single list can include every useful example.
People Powered is particularly useful for continuing the search because its international resource center contains hundreds of materials in dozens of languages and from more than 100 countries. Participedia can then be used to find actual examples of participation methods being used in real communities.
The useful question is not:
“Does another city do exactly what Kendall-Whittier should do?”
It is:
“What have communities elsewhere learned about giving residents information, access, representation, decision-making power and accountability—and what can we adapt here?”
