CeresCollab
Helping communities create solutions and plan for the future.
Based in California’s Central Valley, CeresCollab has projects all around the state. We specialize in community outreach and engagement for local and regional planning projects, and support local leaders as they take ideas from seed to fruition.
We bring extensive experience and professionalism to every project and customize our support to your needs and concerns.
Grace Person, Principal and Founder, is a skilled project manager and facilitator with diverse experience in a range of policy issues such as community mobility, active transportation, local land use planning, California water management, and natural resources planning. Our work includes public engagement process design, interest-based negotiation, small and large group facilitation, and interest group outreach on a range of issues. We have expertise with contract development and administration, project management, collaborative community engagement, public outreach and participation, workshop planning, strategic planning, policy analysis, alternative dispute resolution, and mediation.
Areas of Practice
Collaborative Engagement
The foundation of our practice is working together with others to achieve common goals. It helps increase productivity, improves relationships, leads to effective problem-solving, amplify knowledge, find innovative solutions, offer space for varied perspectives and new ideas, and is a more meaningful experience for participants.
Needs Assessment
If you want to learn about people’s needs and concerns, ask and listen to what they say. Using listening sessions and interviews, we learn about a situation and the information to understand the context of people’s perspective.
Community Outreach
The best way to reach people is to meet them where they are. We strive to make connections with trusted community members and leaders, and empower people to participate in planning processes and decisions that impact their lives.
Facilitation
Our style of guiding meetings seeks to enable meaningful participation, promote trust, and encourage collaboration to reach more equitable and durable solutions.
Project Management
We lead and direct the work of diverse teams to achieve defined goals and outcomes.
Program Design
Our participatory approach to community development assesses the needs and resources existing within a community and involves residents, local groups, and businesses in the process to create sustainable and equitable solutions to address needs. We use a range of tools and models to enhance the efficacy and outcomes of solutions. Ultimately, success rests on the trust we build among participants, communities groups, and decision-makers.
Strategic Thinking
To assure decisions align with the goals, we help groups create shared understanding of needs and purpose, develop a clear plan if needed, prioritize activities to accomplish the plan, adjust the pace of those activities if needed, and measure performance.
Trainings and Education
We offer several kinds of opportunities to develop facilitation and engagement skills and knowledge through practical, hands-on experience and learning.