Community Indicators

Parsons Consulting provides comprehensive community assessment by developing robust,  accessible, and visually compelling indicators that showcase a region's unique characteristics and how these characteristics intersect with each other.

Community indicators are high-utility assessment tools that:

• communicate critical policy and budgetary issues to local stakeholders, public officials, policymakers, and business leaders.
• allow data to drive policy.  
• open community-wide dialogue on important topics and act as a catalyst for partnerships and collective impact. 
• link internal strategic planning to broader community impact.   

Parsons Consulting is a member of the Community Indicators Consortium (CIC) and has presented on indicators at the CIC and American Planning Association conferences.

Applied Research

Parsons Consulting provides a range of applied research methodologies to meet clients' needs.  These include needs assessment, program evaluation, regional analysis, and geographic information systems (GIS).

We are experienced quantitative and qualitative researchers, using primary data collection methods (such as, community surveys, focus groups, and stakeholder interviews) and secondary data analysis methods (such as, trend and comparative analyses, multivariate composite indices, and other approaches).

Planning & Facilitation

Parsons Consulting and associates are Institute of Cultural Affairs ToP-trained facilitators with extensive experience facilitating large and small groups on a diverse range of topics and for a variety of purposes.  ToP (Technology of Participation) is a unique facilitation method that incorporates the input of all participants, identifies agreement as well as divergence, and creates critical buy-in.

Using ToP and other successful strategic planning methods, including Michael Wilkinson's Drivers Model, we deftly guide agencies and communities through thoughtful strategy development, including mission, vision, goals, strategies, objectives, and implementation.   We excel at creating plans with our clients that are both inspiring and actionable.