Lewisville City Council met on Monday, Sept. 11 to discuss the potential creation of a Lewisville Ambassador Program aimed at preparing informed and motivated advocates to actively engage with the community.

The Lewisville 2025 Steering Committee was formed in 2015 to advise on rollout of the vision plan and to help communicate vision plan initiatives to the community. As major elements of the plan were completed, the meetings became more of a reporting outlet for city staff with fewer opportunities to receive advice from committee members.

This slow evolution also hampered the intended external communication role of committee members, who at one time were active in community forums and on social media but had become less so over time. In 2022, city leadership began envisioning a new way to prepare informed and motivated community ambassadors.

Program objectives would be to create a better-informed and better-engaged community, identify potential city advocates within the community, educate advocates and equip them to serve as communication conduits, engage with segments of the community that currently are under-engaged, develop a focus group for selected pilot projects or programs that might require or benefit from public input before implementation, and recruit social media ambassadors for the city by engaging with the city’s social media platforms.

The initial program will be invitation-only with the intent that participants already have a basic understanding of city operations and will receive additional detailed education through these sessions.

“We would really try to start the program by targeting those individuals and bringing them in, knowing that the intent is to continue to grow those feeder programs and to grow this program over time,” said James Kunke, director of community relations and tourism with the city of Lewisville.

With the program, the city would aim to include historically underrepresented populations that reflect Lewisville’s diversity, including people of color, people of various ethnicities, or the LGBTQ community.

Kunke said the city is looking at holding two to four meetings annually, allowing members to present detailed information to the group about current projects and issues. Group discussions will focus on topics identified by city staff, but can include topics requested by group participants.

Ambassador qualifications outlined for initial participation include citizens who are current board and commission members, graduates of the Lewisville Citizens University program, members of the former Mayors Commission, members of the former Castle Hills Ambassadors group, and alumni of the Lewisville Youth Action Council program.

Other Lewisville residents who express interest in the program will be considered for invitation.

Kunke said the city has yet to decide on a name for the program.

“We want to have a name that describes the objectives, but also doesn’t make the rest of the public think that these are official representatives for the city — that they speak for the city,” he said. “...We’re going to spend some time figuring out exactly what to call it, not a lot of time because we’re ready to roll this out fairly quickly.”

City staff is prepared to issue invitations at any time. Kunke said that the Blue Ribbon process provides an excellent opportunity to use an ambassadors session as a “rehearsal” for planned public engagement meetings. Other future topics could include the Old Town TOD project, the SH 121 Business area plans, and Lewisville Lake Park reimagining.

Council recommended city staff move forward with the ambassadors program. Three open public sessions for the program are tentatively planned in October.