Sonoma County Fire Memorial
Community Engagement Framework
DRAFT
Prepared by: Community Engagement Ad Hoc Committee of the Fire Memorial Task Force Date: June 2025
Purpose
Community engagement is the foundation of the Fire Memorial project and the heart of how this memorial will authentically reflect our community's experiences with the 2017 wildfire complex.
The artist's role is to absorb and reflect the full spectrum of our community's stories, emotions, and hopes into a memorial that serves as a place for acknowledgment, remembrance, gathering, and reflection.
The Fire Memorial Task Force has developed this engagement framework because we believe the memorial's power will come from the artist's deep understanding of how these fires impacted our community—the individual and collective grief, the resilience that emerged, and the ongoing process of healing.
Guiding Principles
Inclusivity
The engagement
process will reach
across geography,
language, identity, and
experience to ensure
all voices can
contribute to informing
the artistic vision.
Healing
Every engagement
opportunity will be
designed as a
healing-centered
space that supports
emotional expression
and builds resilience
rather than re-
traumatizing
participants.
Transparency
The process will clarify
how community input
is collected, how it
informs the artistic
process, and what role
the community plays in
the design
development.
Shared Ownership
While respecting the
artist's interpretation
and creative authority,
the community should
feel genuinely heard
and reflected in the
final memorial design.
Attachment 2
Engagement Goals
A successful community engagement process will achieve these outcomes:
➢ The artist will gain insight into the range of experiences, emotions, and community impacts from the fires.
➢ The artist will develop trust and meaningful connections with directly impacted families, survivors, and the broader community.
➢ The engagement process will present to the artist stories, imagery, emotions, and community values that can inspire and inform the memorial design, without prescribing specific artistic solutions.
➢ People across our diverse community will have multiple meaningful opportunities to contribute, including specialized approaches for families of victims, survivors, and different cultural communities.
➢ Through the engagement process, the community will develop an understanding of public art processes, trust in the artist, and shared investment in the final memorial. ➢ Participants will have opportunities to reflect not only on past loss but also to envision and contribute to a hopeful future for our community.
Core Engagement Strategies
The following strategies represent options for community engagement, recognizing that the artist and project team will select the approaches that best align with the artistic process, timeline, and community needs.
❖ Differentiated Engagement Approaches
The engagement process will be designed to recognize that different audiences require varying approaches to engagement.
Families of Victims & Direct Survivors:
● Personal invitations and individual meetings with the artist ● Small, intimate storytelling circles with trauma-informed facilitation ● Private artist meet-and-greets before larger community events General Community:
● Public forums and community presentations
● Online surveys and offering story submission portals
● Pop-up engagement stations at farmers markets, libraries, and community events ● Newsletter updates and social media engagement
Specific Cultural Communities:
● Affinity-based circles hosted by trusted community organizations ● Spanish-language events with interpretation provided
● Partnerships with groups like North Bay Organizing Project, Jobs with Justice, California Indian Cultural Museum
❖ Multiple Engagement Formats
We offer several different methods for engaging with the community In-Person Gatherings:
● Community forums at accessible, comfortable locations ● Site visits and walking discussions
● Meet-the-Artist events for relationship building
Virtual and Asynchronous Options:
● Online story collection portal (potentially through Sonoma County Library, Sonoma County Museum, Sonoma Valley Museum)
● Digital surveys with carefully crafted reflection prompts ● Virtual community presentations for those unable to attend in person ● Social media engagement through Creative Sonoma channels (Instagram, Facebook) Creative and Expressive Activities:
● Community art-making sessions (eg. tiles, memory objects, collaborative pieces) ● Storytelling workshops and sharing circles
● Photography or visual memory collection
● Writing and poetry sessions
Safe and Healing-Centered Spaces
Every engagement activity will prioritize emotional safety and healing. This commitment manifests through trauma-informed facilitation, with gatherings assisted by facilitators with experience in trauma and community healing. Sessions will begin with shared agreements that establish community norms emphasizing respect, confidentiality, and care.
Mental health professionals will be available at larger gatherings to provide emotional support, while quiet options ensure that opt-out spaces and alternative participation methods are available for those who need them. Throughout the process, cultural sensitivity will guide our approach, recognizing that people process grief and trauma in different ways across cultures.
Outreach Framework
Target Communities
Primary Outreach (Personal Contact):
● Families who lost loved ones in the fires
● Fire survivors
● First responders and emergency personnel
Community Organizations & Networks:
● Faith communities and congregations
● Fire Safe councils and COPE groups
● Senior living communities and centers
● Immigrant community organizations (Bayer Farm, NBOP)
● School districts and youth organizations
● Artist communities (Creative Bridges participants, emerging artists) ● Nonprofit networks through Sonoma County COAD
● Medical and hospital personnel
● Public employees (city and county staff)
Geographic Communities:
● Residents near the memorial site location
● Fountaingrove, Coffey Park, Mark West and other affected neighborhood associations ● Block captains and neighborhood leaders
Outreach Methods & Messengers
Method Best For Trusted Messengers
Personal Calls/Emails Families, survivors, first
responders
Task Force members, county
staff, community leaders
Partner Organization
Networks
Cultural communities, seniors,
youth
Faith leaders, nonprofit directors,
community organizers
Creative Sonoma
Channels
General public, artists,
county-wide reach
Social media, Fire Memorial
webpage, newsletters
Local Media Broad awareness, displaced
community members
Press releases, op-eds, radio
interviews
Community Event Pop-
ups
Meeting people where they
are
Existing gatherings such as
farmers markets, etc.
Supervisor/City
Council Updates
Civic engagement,
neighborhood reach
Board of Supervisors District
newsletters, council meeting
announcements
Multilingual Materials Spanish-speaking
communities
Library staff, cultural
organizations, translated
materials
Potential Implementation Framework
Phase 1: Introduction & Awareness
Activities:
● Public announcement of artist selection
● Meet-the-Artist community events either virtually and/or in different locations ● Update the Fire Memorial webpage with engagement opportunities ● Initial outreach to families and directly impacted individuals Goals: Build awareness, introduce the artist to the community, establish trust
Phase 2: Deep Listening & Story Collection
Activities:
● Storytelling circles and listening sessions
● Art-making workshops and creative expression sessions ● Individual meetings between the artist and families/survivors ● Pop-up engagement stations throughout the county
● Online story and memory collection
Goals: Gather rich community input to inform the artistic vision
Phase 3: Concept Development & Community Feedback
Activities:
● Presentation of initial design concepts to Task Force ● Community forums to share artistic direction and gather reactions ● Focused feedback sessions with families and directly impacted individuals ● Refinement of design based on community input
Goals: Ensure community voice is reflected, build support for design direction
Phase 4: Final Design & Community Preparation
Activities:
● Final design presentation to the Task Force
● Planning for installation and dedication events
● Documentation and celebration of engagement process
Goals: Prepare for memorial completion
Resource Support & Coordination
Task Force Role:
● Provide contact lists and facilitate introductions
● Participation in events when possible
● Assist with outreach through existing networks
● Offer feedback and guidance throughout the process
Creative Sonoma Support:
● Project management and timeline coordination
● Support event logistics and venue coordination
● Communications and media outreach
● Website maintenance and online engagement tools
● Budget management for engagement activities
● Ensure trauma-informed facilitation for sensitive gatherings ● Translation services and cultural competency guidance ● Arrange for mental health support to be present at events ● Oversee communications strategy and materials development ● Inspire engagement with county and city officials
Commitment to Community Voice
The Fire Memorial Task Force is committed to supporting this engagement framework through logistical coordination, community outreach, and facilitation support. This framework offers our ideas about the conditions for authentic community connection while respecting the artistic process and creative authority necessary for the creation of the memorial.
This document represents our shared vision for how community engagement can inform and strengthen the memorial. The framework is designed to serve both the community's need to be heard and the artistic need to create a lasting memorial that truly reflects our collective experience with the 2017 fires and their ongoing impact on Sonoma County.
Resources:
https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=790ba363d4e74c77a94d861a7 dd533fe