3. Agenda
ï§ Introductions and goals
ï§ Best practices in engagement â and
why they arenât enough
ï§ Lunch
ï§ Movie
ï§ Building blocks for local democracy
ï§ What are your building blocks?
ï§ Next steps for WV network
4. Opening questions
ï§ What has led you to practice and promote
public engagement in your community?
ï§ Why is this work important?
ï§ What do you hope to learn today?
5. What do you want to learn?
ï§ How this fits in democratic system â especially with the
feeling that âyou elected us to decideâ
ï§ Weed out the weak ones â resources, people, etc.
ï§ How to get more people involved and active â
overcome apathy
ï§ How to use carrots, not cattle prods
ï§ Convince more people that engagement is important â
elected officials in particular
ï§ Give people who want to make change a voice
ï§ Overcome divisions and fractures in the community
7. The context:
How have citizens* changed?
ï§ More educated
ï§ More skeptical â different attitudes
toward authority
ï§ Have less time to spare
ï§ Use the Internet to learn and connect
* âcitizensâ = residents, people
8. The context:
Families with young children
ï§ Have the most at stake in community
success
ï§ Parents have even more motivation to
engage, but even less time, than
average resident
ï§ Want opportunities to engage in
community, not just politics
9. Successful recent public
engagement tactics
ï§ Proactive about recruitment
ï§ Bringing diverse perspectives together
ï§ Sharing experiences
ï§ Giving people chance to make up their own
minds (deliberative)
ï§ Different levels of action: volunteers, teams,
organizations, policy decisions
ï§ Increasing use of online tools
10. Successful tactic: Proactive recruitment
ï§ Map community networks;
ï§ Involve leaders of those networks;
ï§ Hold a kickoff
meeting;
ï§ Follow up,
follow up, follow
up.
11. Successful tactic: Small-group processes
ï§ No more than 12 people per group;
ï§ Facilitator who is impartial (doesnât give
opinions);
ï§ Start with people
describing their
experiences, end
with action
planning.
12. Successful tactic: Framing an issue
Provide an agenda or guide that:
ï§ Begins by asking people to talk about why they
care about this issue or question
ï§ Gives them the information they need, in ways
they can absorb and use it
ï§ Lays out several options or views (including
ones you donât agree with)
ï§ Ends with questions that get people to plan
what they want to do (not just what they want
you to do)
17. Successful tactic: Online tools
ï§ Complement face-to-face communication,
donât replace it
ï§ Particularly good for:
o Providing background information
o Data gathering by citizens
o Generating and ranking ideas
o Helping people visualize options
o Maintaining connections over time
18. Digital divides (plural)
ï§ Overall, Internet access growing
ï§ âAccessâ â to Internet, to government â
has never been enough
ï§ Different people use different hardware
ï§ Different people go to different places on
the Internet
ï§ Communities just as complex online as off
â recruitment must be proactive
19. In other (fewer) words, the key
success factors are:
ï§ Diverse critical mass
ï§ Structured
ï§ Deliberative
ï§ Action-oriented
ï§ Online and F2F
20. âDecatur Nextâ
Decatur, Georgia
ï§ Large-scale planning efforts in 2000, 2010
ï§ Initial Organizer: city government and a local
nonprofit (Common Focus)
ï§ Issues: schools, race, growth
ï§ 450 participants in 2000, 680 in 2010 (city of
17,000)
21.
22. âDecatur Roundtablesâ
Decatur, Georgia
Outcomes:
ï§ Decatur Neighborhood Alliance
ï§ Promotion of tax abatement plan for seniors,
other anti-displacement efforts
ï§ Less tension between different groups
ï§ New model for land use decisions
ï§ Extensive citizen input into cityâs strategic plan
23. âCommunity Chatâ
Southwest Delray Beach, FL
Outcomes:
ï§ Parent support group
ï§ Youth basketball team
ï§ Expansion of âDelray Divasâ youth group
ï§ Westside Neighborhood Presidentsâ Council
ï§ Citizen input to street redevelopment plan
ï§ âMaintaining the Villageâ effort to rehab
housing
ï§ New deregulated public
school - the âVillage Academyâ
24. âWhat To Do About the Flu?â
Georgia, Nebraska,
Massachusetts, Oregon
âą Took place in 2005
âą Centers for Disease Control, Study Circles
Resource Center, Keystone Center
âą Issue: pandemic influenza
âą 500 participants
25. âWhat To Do About the Flu?â
Georgia, Nebraska,
Massachusetts, Oregon
Outcomes:
âą Input used in Bush Administrationâs pandemic
preparedness plan
âą Local planning to prepare for pandemic
26. âHorizonsâ
Rural communities in seven
Northwestern states
ï§ Initiated by Northwest Area Foundation
ï§ 284 towns, with poverty rates between
10% and 78%
ï§ Issues: poverty reduction and economic
development
ï§ 3,000+ participants
27. âHorizonsâ
Rural communities in seven
Northwestern states
Outcomes listed in recent evaluation:
âCommunity gardens and farmerâs markets,
parks, trails (one with a $1.2 million grant), and
recreational opportunities, community and
community resource centers, scholarships for
low income children and families for daycare,
after school programming and recreation,
including Boys and Girlsâ clubs, car repair and
home maintenance programs, and in (at least)
five communities, the establishment of
community foundations.â
28. Successes, limitations of
engagement so far
Successes: Making policy decisions, planning
Catalyzing citizen action
Building trust
Fostering new leadership
Challenges: Time-consuming (especially recruitment)
Unsustainable (usually not intended to be)
Meets goals of âengagers,â not âengagedâ
Doesnât change the institutions
Limited impact on equity
Trust, relationships fade over time
29. Hmm. What do you think of this?
1. Does this match your experiences with public
engagement? Why or why not?
2. What would you add?
30. What do you need to know about
your community?
1. How effective are your engagement efforts â
who participates? Are officials happy with how
they work? Are citizens happy?
2. How effective are the grassroots groups â do
they get things done? Do people participate?
3. Are there segments of the community that
have typically not been involved?
31. Why plan for more sustainable
kinds of engagement?
1. Sustain the benefits
2. Allow the âengagedâ to set the agenda
3. Better address inequities
4. Increase community attachment and
economic growth
5. Increase residentsâ sense of legitimacy and
âpublic happinessâ
32.
33.
34. Social media is a critical tool for
new forms of engagement
ï§ More sustained
ï§ Larger, more diverse numbers of
people
ï§ Easier for âengagersâ â recruitment
doesnât have to start from scratch
ï§ More open to ideas from the
âengagedâ
35.
36. âSometimes you need a
meeting that is also a party.
Sometimes you need a party
that is also a meeting.â
â Gloria Rubio-CortĂšs,
National Civic League
41. âPortsmouth Listensâ
Portsmouth, NH
ï§ Ongoing process since 2000
ï§ Several hundred participants each time
ï§ Addressed a number of major policy
decisions: bullying in schools, school
redistricting, cityâs master plan,
balancing city budget, whether to build
new middle school
42. Jane Addams School for Democracy
West Side of St. Paul, MN
ï§ Community center that has hosted âneighborhood
learning circlesâ every month since 1998
ï§ Involves recent Hmong, Latino, Somali immigrants
ï§ Young people involved in circles and other activities
ï§ Cultural exchanges - food, crafts, storytelling
ï§ Has resulted in new projects, initiatives, festivals, and a
change in INS policy
43. Participatory Budgeting in Brazilian cities
ï§ Commitment from govât to adopt budget;
ï§ Wide range of ways to be involved;
ï§ A carnival
atmosphere;
ï§ Started small,
now huge â
60,000+ people
44. âKuna Alliance for a Cohesive
Community Teamâ Kuna, ID
ï§ Recurring input-gathering process, used on
all major decisions
ï§ Organized by Kuna Alliance for a Cohesive
Team (Kuna ACT), in collaboration with local
government
ï§ Issues include: school funding, downtown
development, planning and growth
ï§ 500 participants annually (city of 6,000)
45. âKuna Alliance for a Cohesive
Community Teamâ Kuna, ID
Outcomes:
ï§ New comprehensive plan
ï§ Passage of school bond issue
ï§ Improvements
made to
downtown
ï§ New strategy to
market community
as hub for âBirds
of Preyâ area
46.
47. âDemocracy needs a place to sit downâ
Communities need places that are:
1. Permanent
2. Not just âopen,â but actively
welcoming
3. Centered on citizen needs and
priorities
4. Powerful
5. Political, social, and cultural
48. âDemocracy is good for your
healthâ
â Roger Bernier, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
49. Questions for discussion
1. Does your community already have some
building blocks in place?
2. Are there other building blocks that might be
useful?
3. If you were to begin creating a long-term plan
for your community, who would you work
with?
4. What do you need to help you get started?
50. What do you want to learn?
ï§ How this fits in democratic system â especially with the
feeling that âyou elected us to decideâ
ï§ Weed out the weak ones â resources, people, etc.
ï§ How to get more people involved and active â
overcome apathy
ï§ How to use carrots, not cattle prods
ï§ Convince more people that engagement is important â
elected officials in particular
ï§ Give people who want to make change a voice
ï§ Overcome divisions and fractures in the community
53. Resources (continued)
âą On YouTube: the DDC channel
âą Using Online Tools to Engage â and
Be Engaged by â the Public at
http://bit.ly/iwjgqn
âą Planning for Stronger Local
Democracy at bit.ly/rWeHaU â and
other resources at www.nlc.org
55. Next steps in West Virginia
If you could do one thing to strengthen democratic
participation in WV, what would it be?
ï§Participatory Budgeting on use of CDBG funds in
Huntington
ï§Redo the way we do public comment periods
ï§PB on departmental budgets
ï§âKids meetingâ as part of commission meetings
ï§Repeat Jamie Oliver project in other counties
56. Next steps in West Virginia
What do you need help with?
ï§Trainings for volunteers on things like how to
engage young people in the community
ï§Sequel to this workshop, with teams from
communities
ï§Help dealing with past community conflicts
(social, political, racial, etc.)
ï§Revitalize committees â how to identify and
recruit people who can jump in and help lead
ï§Success stories from other similar towns
ï§Help with grantwriting, fundraising
ï§Webinars