ABOUT TPC: TRAINERS, COACHES AND CONSULTANTS
As professionals who work with the public, Participation Company LLC (TPC) principles and partners helps government agencies, non-profits and companies manage public issues to accomplish their objectives.
As practitioners we have decades of experience in designing and conducting community engagement programs for an array of organizations, in connection with well over 1,500 various projects. TPC principals are founders and originators of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). We are leaders in developing the practice and principles of authentic public involvement and participation recognized globally today. We’ve translated this experience intopractical and highly effective training courses, and a range of custom consulting engagements.
We’llwork with you to plan and manage your public communication and engagement project. We can train, coach, and mentor your staff and managers and provide ongoing consultation or management when you need it. Ultimately, we’ll help you build relationships, trust and agreements, and craft durable and defensible decisions so that move your initiatives forward.
The Partners
We’re all business and public sector consultants who have spent our careers working as open-process advocates and facilitators between stakeholders and decision-makers.
Founders and original leaders of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).
- IAP2 former Executive Director (Doug Sarno)
- Former International Training Director (Wendy Green Lowe)
- Former International Vice President (John Godec)
- IAP2 USA Board Directors (Lowe, and Godec)
- Former International Board Directors (Lowe and Godec)
- Principal developer of the IAP2 Spectrum (Sarno)
- Principal authors and original master trainers for IAP2’s 40-hour
- Certificate in Public Participation course (Godec, Lowe, and Sarno)
- New trainer developers, coaches and mentors (Godec, Lowe and Sarno)
- Developer of IAP2’s Emotion, Outrage and Public Participation course (Godec)
- Developer of IAP2’s Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation (Godec)
- Leading Developer of IAP2’s Professional Certification Program (Lowe)
Our public involvement and wide-ranging experience is in the training and practice of:
- Strategic and environmental planning
- Stakeholder issue research and needs assessment
- Program development and design
- Process and meeting facilitation
- Effective public information
- Public and media relations
- Risk communication
- Crisis communication
- (Re)Building public trust and credibility
- Multi-stakeholder meeting and dialogue facilitation
- Formation and management of citizen advisory groups and task forces
- Employee focus groups, advisory boards, and participation programs
- Interagency consultation
- Collaborative planning
- Consensus building
- Decision support
TPC’s History as Public Sector Consultants
Three long-time public participation colleagues — each with thriving practices and areas of expertise — combined our time and talent when we realized that we wereeven better together. Our combined proficiencies give us the ability and capacity to serve the largest clients and the most complex projects, plus manage issues that we couldn’t do as effectively alone. In 2010 we formed TPC to take advantage of our collective synergy, strengths, and geographic locations.
Our experience as public sector consultants have been applied to urban and regional planning, natural resource management, infrastructure and facility siting, the federal Superfund program, mining, public policy development, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and organizational change initiatives. A majority of our work is aroundhighly-charged, controversial, and complex community concerns and proposals that affect people’s lives, make major social and infrastructure changes, and determine the long-term future of communities and organizations. A few representative examples of our work can be found on the Case Studies page.