1. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN
CHANGING TIMES
Matt Leighninger
FIU workshop
June 20, 2013

2. THE DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY CONSORTIUM

3. THE CONTEXT:
HOW HAVE CITIZENS* CHANGED?
 More educated
 More skeptical – different
attitudes toward authority
 Have less time to spare
 Better able to find
resources, allies,
information
* “citizens” = residents,
people

4. 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

5. THE CONTEXT: INCREASED USE OF THE INTERNET

6. THREE MINUTES AT THE MICROPHONE
Retrieved from Cincinnati.com, July 27, 2012

7. “WHAT DROVE ME TO TRY PLANNED,
STRUCTURED PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
WAS MY AWFUL EXPERIENCE WITH
UNPLANNED, UNSTRUCTURED PUBLIC
ENGAGEMENT.”
─ John Nalbandian,
former mayor,
Lawrence, KS

8. 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!

9. 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.

10. 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

11. SUCCESSFUL TACTIC: ENCOURAGING CITIZEN ACTION

14. SUCCESSFUL TACTIC: ONLINE TOOLS
Particularly good for:
 Providing background information
 Data gathering by citizens
 Generating and
ranking ideas
 Helping people
visualize options
 Maintaining
connections
over time

15. “DECATUR NEXT”
DECATUR, GEORGIA
 Large-scale planning efforts in 2000,
2010
 Initial Organizer: city government and
a local nonprofit (Common Focus)
 Issues: schools, race, growth
 450 participants in 2000, 680 in 2010
(city of 17,000)

17. “DECATUR ROUNDTABLES”
DECATUR, GEORGIA
Outcomes:
• Decatur Neighborhood Alliance
• Promotion of tax abatement plan for seniors,
other anti-displacement efforts
• Less tension between different groups
• New model for land use decisions
• Extensive citizen input into city‟s strategic plan

18. SHARE YOUR STORY, SHAPE YOUR CARE”
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
• Began in 2009
• North West Ontario Local Health Integration
Network, Ascentum
• Issue: health care planning and
improvement of health care services
• 800 participants
• Received IAP2 award

19. Element 1 – Online choicebook that provided
background information and data, described
main options
SHARE YOUR STORY, SHAPE YOUR CARE”
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO

20. Element 2 – Online “stories and ideas” tool that
allowed people to share experiences, solutions
SHARE YOUR STORY, SHAPE YOUR CARE”
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO

21. Element 3 – Conversation guide for face-to-
face, moderated small-group meetings
SHARE YOUR STORY, SHAPE YOUR CARE”
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO

22. “COMMUNITY CHAT”
SOUTHWEST DELRAY BEACH, FL
Outcomes:
• Parent support group
• Youth basketball team
• Expansion of “Delray Divas” youth group
• Westside Neighborhood Presidents‟ Council
• Citizen input to street redevelopment plan
• “Maintaining the Village”
effort to rehab housing
• New deregulated public
school

23. “HORIZONS”
RURAL COMMUNITIES IN SEVEN
NORTHWESTERN STATES
• Initiated by Northwest Area Foundation
• 284 towns, with poverty rates between 10%
and 78%
• Issues: poverty reduction and economic
development
• 3,000+ participants

24. “HORIZONS”
RURAL COMMUNITIES IN SEVEN
NORTHWESTERN STATES
Outcomes listed in recent evaluation:
“Community gardens and farmer‟s 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 Girls‟ clubs, car repair and
home maintenance programs, and in (at least)
five communities, the establishment of
community foundations.”

25. NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON MENTAL HEALTH

26. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

27. STRENGTHS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
 Making policy decisions, plans, budgets
 Catalyzing citizen action
 Building trust, fostering new leadership
 Connections = disaster preparedness
 Attachment = economic vitality

28. LIMITATIONS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (AS
WE PRACTICE IT TODAY)
 Lots of work for temporary gain
 Inefficient – every organization on its own
 Community moves back to „politics as usual‟
 „Engagers‟ set the agenda, not the „engaged‟
 Limited impact on equity
 Laws on participation out
of step with practices
 Not well measured or
benchmarked

29. WHAT IS CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE?
The regular opportunities, activities,
and arenas that allow people to
connect with each other, solve
problems, make decisions, and be
part of a community.

31. “PORTSMOUTH LISTENS”
PORTSMOUTH, NH
 Ongoing process since 2000
 Several hundred participants each time
 Addressed a number of major policy
decisions: bullying in schools, school
redistricting, city‟s master plan, balancing city
budget, whether to build new middle school

32. 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

33. 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

34. “KUNA ALLIANCE FOR A COHESIVE
COMMUNITY TEAM” KUNA, ID
 Recurring input-gathering process, used on
all major decisions
 Organized by Kuna Alliance for a Cohesive
Team (Kuna ACT), in collaboration with local
government
 Issues include: school funding, downtown
development, planning and growth
 500 participants annually (city of 6,000)

35. “KUNA ALLIANCE FOR A COHESIVE
COMMUNITY TEAM” KUNA, ID
Outcomes:
 New comprehensive plan
 Passage of school bond issue
 Improvements
made to
downtown
 New strategy to
market community
as hub for “Birds
of Prey” area

36. NEW MODEL ORDINANCE ON PUBLIC
PARTICIPATION
Available at www.deliberative-democracy.net
Developed as a collaboration of:

38. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE

39. BUILDING BLOCK:
Helping
neighborhood and
school groups
become more
- effective
- inclusive
- participatory

40. BUILDING BLOCK: HYPERLOCAL ONLINE
FORUMS
More sustained
Larger, more diverse numbers of people
Easier for „engagers‟ – recruitment doesn‟t have to start
from scratch
More open to ideas from the „engaged‟

41. DIGITAL DIVIDES (PLURAL)
 Overall, Internet access growing
 “Access” – to Internet, to government – has
never been enough
 Different people use different hardware
 Different people go to different places on the
Internet
 Communities just as complex online as off –
recruitment must be proactive

42. BUILDING BLOCK: CIVIC INDICATORS
1. Capture more of the basic data
2. Use databases
3. Establish „mid-level‟ indicators to
connect basic data with „metadata‟ like
Soul of the Community
4. Be transparent – and think about ways to
allow people to contribute and analyze
data

43. BUILDING BLOCK: YOUTH LEADERSHIP

44. “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
DON‟T FORGET: FUN

46. SLIDES AVAILABLE AT:
WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/MATTLEIGHNINGER
GUIDES:
HTTP://BIT.LY/PSLDNLC
HTTP://BIT.LY/IWJGQN

47. RESOURCES
www.participedia.net
www.deliberative-democracy.net
www.soulofthecommunity.org
www.everydaydemocracy.org
www.publicagenda.org
www.kettering.org

48. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?