beyond three minutes at the microphone - icma civic engagement workshop

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Beyond 3 Minutes at the Microphone

Participatory Budgeting, Text-Enabled

Dialogue, and other cutting-edge

practices for public engagement

Frontiers of Democracy conference

Boston, Massachusetts

July 17th, 2014

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THE DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY CONSORTIUM

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The context for engagement:

How have citizens* changed?

• More educated

• More skeptical – different

attitudes toward authority

• Have less time to spare

• Better able to find resources,

allies, information (Internet)

* citizens = residents, people

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The context:

Families with young children

Have the most at stake in community success

More motivation to engage, but even less time

Want to engage in community, not just politics

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The context: Civic technology

Available free for download at BIT.LY/IWJGQN

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Three minutes at the microphone

Retrieved from Cincinnati.com, July 27, 2012

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“What drove me to try planned, structured

public engagement was my awful

experience with unplanned, unstructured

public engagement.”

─ John Nalbandian, Former Mayor, Lawrence, Kansas

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Treating citizens like adults

Give them:

Information

Chance to tell their

story

Choices

Legitimacy

Chances to

take action

Good process

Food and fun!

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Successful tactic: Proactive recruitment

Map community networks;

Involve leaders of those networks;

‘Who is least

likely to

participate?’

Use online as

well as f2f

connections;

Follow up!

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Successful tactic:

Small-group processes

No more than 12 people per group;

Facilitator who is impartial (doesn’t give opinions);

Start with people

describing their

experiences;

Lay out options;

Help people plan for

action.

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SUCCESSFUL TACTIC: FRAMING AN ISSUE

Give people the information they need, in ways

they can use it

Lays out several options

or views (including ones

you don’t agree with!)

Trust them

to make good

decisions

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Successful tactic:

Encouraging citizen action

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Successful tactic:

Encouraging citizen action

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Successful tactic:

Encouraging citizen action

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SUCCESSFUL TACTIC: ONLINE TOOLS

Texting, Twitter, Facebook, Hootsuite, and beyond…

Particularly good for:

Providing background information

Data gathering by citizens

Generating and

ranking ideas

Helping people

visualize options

Maintaining

connections

over time

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“Sometimes you need a

meeting that is also a

party. Sometimes you

need a party that is also a

meeting.”

Gloria Rubio-Cortès, National Civic

League

SUCCESSFUL TACTIC: FUN

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STRENGTHS OF OCCASIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Making policy decisions, plans, budgets

Catalyzing

• citizen action

Rebuilding

• trust, fostering

• new leadership

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LIMITATIONS OF OCCASIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Lots of work for temporary gain

Inefficient – every organization on its own

Community moves back to ‘politics as usual’

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“PORTSMOUTH LISTENS” PORTSMOUTH, NH

Ongoing since 2000

Several hundred

participants/year

Addressed bullying in

schools, school

redistricting, city’s

master plan, balancing

city budget, whether to

build new middle

school, etc.

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JANE ADDAMS SCHOOL FOR DEMOCRACY

WEST SIDE OF ST. PAUL, MN

50-200 people in “neighborhood learning circles” every month since 1998

Involves recent Hmong, Latino, Somali immigrants

Young people involved in circles and other activities

Cultural exchanges - food, crafts, storytelling

Has resulted in new

projects, initiatives,

festivals, and change

in INS policy

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“CREATE BUCKHANNON” BUCKHANNON, WV

Ongoing process since 2009

Weekly lunch, using open space process, called

“Meet and Eat”

Have created a park, a weekly summer music

festival and market, a city plan, downtown

improvements, and safe biking and walking

routes

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“DECATUR NEXT” DECATUR, GA

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PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN BRAZILIAN CITIES

Commitment from gov’t to adopt budget;

Wide range of ways to be involved;

A carnival

atmosphere;

Started small,

now huge –

60,000+ people

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Questions or comments?

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DIGITAL DIVIDES (PLURAL)

Overall, Internet access growing

Different people use different hardware

Different people

go to different

places on the

Internet

Communities just

as complex online

as off

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WHAT ONLINE TOOLS CAN DO: HELP CITIZENS GATHER DATA

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WHAT ONLINE TOOLS CAN DO: HELP PEOPLE SOLVE PROBLEMS

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WHAT ONLINE TOOLS CAN DO: HELP PEOPLE GENERATE AND

RANK IDEAS

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WHAT ONLINE TOOLS CAN DO: HELP PEOPLE VISUALIZE

OPTIONS

WHAT ONLINE

TOOLS CAN DO:

HELP SUSTAIN

COMMUNITY

CONNECTIONS

Text, Talk, and Act

part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health

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National Dialogue on Mental Health

• "Only 40% of people with mental illness

receive treatment. We would not

accept that for any other disease....“

- President Obama

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What is Creating Community

Solutions?

• Effort to organize hundreds of

community conversations and action

plans

• Ten lead sites

• Wide variety of other events: small

discussions, online dialogues, large planning processes

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Developing “Text, Talk, and Act”

• HS pilot: Rex Putnam High School, Milwaukie,

Oregon

• College pilot: Roger Williams University, Bristol,

Rhode Island

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How does it work?

• Get together with 4-5 other

people

• Text “START” to 89800

• Follow the prompts

• If you get stuck, text “NEXT” to

89800

• Allow about an hour for the

discussion

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Photos tweeted by participants • #TextTalkAct

Selfies

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COMMON MISTAKES

Treating Internet as a one-way medium

Not enough recruitment

Transparency without proactive engagement

Gathering ideas and not implementing them

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Working group on legal frameworks

for public participation

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Definition of public participation

No mandates – model is ADR

Principles for successful

public participation

Possible use of commission

or other agency at local

government level

Best use: to start a

discussion about how you

want participation to work

in your municipality

Local public participation ordinance

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Questions or comments?