Flipping the script on typical state projects, where public engagement processes happen after the plans have already been drawn up, the meeting in Davant is part of a new approach to coastal planning oriented around residents' ideas and values, which the state calls 'Louisiana's Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments,' or LA SAFE for short. This 'co-design' process emerged from a robust public engagement effort that got its start in Plaquemines Parish in spring 2016, when local philanthropic group the Foundation for Louisiana teamed up with community planning and design firm Concordia and a host of environmental groups from the New Orleans area to define a new process for helping communities live in increasingly vulnerable coastal areas. Their guiding principles were transparency, communication, and trusting the 'wisdom of the crowd.'