This past May, I had the opportunity to participate in the Workshop in Urban Data Storytelling (WUDS), a program designed to bridge spatial analysis, data literacy, and narrative building in the context of urban planning and public systems. While the workshop was technically rigorous, built around Python, QGIS, and working with spatial data, it opened up new pathways for how I think about public and community engagement work, especially when it comes to analysis.
At Engage Delaney, we believe that public engagement is about more than just hearing from people, it’s about understanding what we hear, and grounding that input in the systems and structures that shape people’s lives. That’s where spatial tools can play a more powerful role than we often allow.
Whether we’re working on housing policy, transportation planning, healthcare strategies or solid waste management, we’re always working in place, with geographies that vary in accessibility, infrastructure, social vulnerability, and trust. GIS allows us to look at where engagement input is coming from and to layer that input with demographic, service, and infrastructure data. This offers an opportunity to better reflect lived experience and pinpoint geographic patterns that raw survey statistics might miss.
My final project for the workshop focused on transit deserts in Vancouver, specifically looking at the spatial relationship between access to transit and perceived safety for women and gender-diverse people. Using census data, OpenStreetMap, lighting and sidewalk infrastructure data, and transit schedules, I created layered maps that told a clearer story: some communities face a compounded experience of transit inaccessibility, not just because of distance, but because of safety, cost, and design.
This kind of mapping helped me think differently about data storytelling. It’s not just about visualizing disparities, it’s also about how we frame the story. One of the most compelling parts of the workshop was exploring asset-based framing: the idea that we can choose to emphasize strengths, resilience, and potential in communities, rather than only highlighting gaps or deficits. That lens is especially relevant in engagement, where we’re often asked to report on what’s “not working.” But the story doesn’t end there; it can also point to where community capacity already exists, and where support can amplify that.
These are the kinds of insights I’m excited to bring into our projects. Not just maps for the sake of maps, but spatial context that helps explain what people are telling us and why their experiences differ depending on where they live. And not just polished visuals, but stories that reflect both the challenges and strengths we hear in engagement.
Practically, this means I’ll be integrating spatial analysis into engagement summaries and reports where relevant, especially when engagement is geographically broad or when equity implications are tied to location. I can now produce maps that show gaps in representation, compare feedback with service coverage, and cross-reference local infrastructure conditions with survey data or open-text themes.
What’s equally exciting is the potential to use these tools in the design phase of engagement, not just during analysis. Spatial data can help identify priority outreach areas, visualize who might be impacted but not yet engaged, and support more targeted, accessible engagement planning overall.
I’m still learning, and I plan to keep building fluency in these tools. But the direction is clear: engagement analysis is stronger when it’s rooted in place. GIS and Python aren’t just technical upgrades; they’re ways of listening more carefully, framing more meaningfully, and seeing more fully the communities we serve.
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About the Workshop
The Workshop in Urban Data Storytelling (WUDS) is a one-week in-person intensive designed to help city-building professionals apply data analysis and narrative strategies to real-world planning and policy projects. Through hands-on training in Python, QGIS, and storytelling techniques, participants learn to analyze complex urban data and translate findings into compelling, equity-informed stories that support decision-making and public engagement. Offered through the Equitable Development Data Insight Training (EDDIT) Initiative, a collaboration between the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and UC Berkeley, WUDS emphasizes practical, applied learning that bridges data and narrative for impact.