For many, the holidays are nearing. The social calendar is getting full. There might be flights being booked, baking happening, and outings being planned. As 2025 comes to a close, it is with a grateful heart that we celebrate all the relationships we have forged with clients, training participants and our team. In a world of complexity, it can be easy to lose sight of the things that hold everything together: relationships and human connection. You can get everything right – the objectives, the venue, the methods, the sequencing, but if you do not have relationships or connections, it can all fail, or at least not work out as well as planned!
Recently, I was back in a community for a second round of engagement and it was so nice to see familiar faces, to get to know people beyond their interest in the project and to spend time with truly lovely clients. It’s a privilege and not something we ever take for granted.
Looking ahead to 2026 feels like a new horizon, one that will mark the 30th year of Engage Delaney. A family business started by my parents, Richard and Valerie, that has evolved from what began as a sustainability consulting firm to an engagement firm. The shift came after many lovely sustainability plans were developed and then found their permanent home on a shelf. Our realization was that change needs people’s buy-in, passion, know-how, and commitment to be made real. This was in the early 2000s and since then we have supported hundreds of organizations with thousands of projects.
We have big plans for our 30th year and just one of them is a new offering to support community relations. Just as Rick and Val (Dad and Mom) realized that meaningful change requires people to be engaged in the change, I have realized that people need to feel connected to each other and their communities in order to engage. From training to new services to develop and support community relations programs, there will be much more to come in 2026. You can expect to see specials like we’ve never offered before, new courses, new service offerings and a few engagement and facilitation treats along the way.
In 2023, Rob and I took over the business to continue the work we love and to continue with our mission for more and better engagement across Canada and across sectors. In these times where we can so easily find division, polarization, hate and distrust, we have never felt more driven to build more than a company, but a movement that supports participatory democracy, connection and respectful dialogue.
Thank you to the clients, training participants and colleagues who have all contributed to our last 30 years. We would not be here without you and we hope you’ll join us throughout an anniversary year ahead where we celebrate engagement past, present and future.