The document discusses strategies for effective public engagement and civic participation. It outlines how citizens have changed and have less time to participate. New technologies and tactics like participatory budgeting, text-enabled dialogue, and online tools can help engage more citizens. Successful tactics discussed include proactive recruitment, small group processes, framing issues clearly, encouraging action, and making events fun. Ongoing engagement programs in various cities are highlighted that have addressed local issues through continual civic participation. The document cautions against mistakes like one-way online communication and gathering ideas without implementation.

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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

30. WHAT ONLINE
TOOLS CAN DO:
HELP SUSTAIN
COMMUNITY
CONNECTIONS

31. 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?