Public and community engagement, involvement and participation is what we are doing as consultants. It is also what we help others do most effectively. We work with teams, companies and agencies on reaching consensus through public participation and collaboration. We usually find ourselves bridging divides by creating spaces where people are willing to participate to build solutions. Community engagement builds consensus. And below you have some of the best of the news and tips that we have found about how to engage communities. Or what happens when you do not. The latest news handpicked by our public sector consultants, all wrapped up with a sometimes snarky – yet always informed – perspective. Enjoy!
By the time you’re reading this, you may have seen two Presidential and one Vice-Presidential debates and you’ve gotten a lesson in the value and challenge of facilitation. Managing discussions or debates with people who are aggressive, aggrieved or just dominant requires skills that not everyone necessarily has, including seasoned ...
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The public involvement meeting world has changed. The days of packing school cafeterias with people stuffed together into folding chairs munching cookies is gone for the immediate future. But life does go on and our engagement goes on online. Here are some helpful tips. Read more...
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At the risk of offending redheads (please send your comments and death threats to Doug at [email protected]), I must point out that probably the least considered and prioritized core value of authentic public participation is IAP2’s #7: Public participation communicates to participants how their input affected the decision. It’s the ...
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The death of George Floyd launched a rocket under the seven-year-old Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and nothing suggests it will fade from public consciousness anytime soon. But at some point we’ll need to decide what happens beyond just the protests. More than a year ago, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County ...
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Our managing pardner Debra Duerr has some personal thoughts on the role of a citizen.
Those of us in the public participation business will always remember the citizen activist we met
on every project – the person with boundless energy who resisted, shouted, provoked, forced a different way of thinking, ...
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Given the still rising number of new COVID-19 cases in most of the U.S., it’s pretty obvious that we’re going to be in quarantine mode for the foreseeable future, which means that most face-to-face public events will still be held virtually for a while. We’ve used various checklists for real ...
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The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington says wearing face masks reduces transmission of the COVID virus by as much as 50%. There’s really no debate about that by anyone credible. So, as infections are now doubling in some recently reopened states, one might ...
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Lord Acton is known to have said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” David Brin later said, “… it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible.” The genesis of public engagement is based on people’s right to some influence on the decisions that have an effect on ...
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As the following story says, just when we most need to connect to people on an interpersonal basis, that’s the last thing we can safely do. Here are some ideas about staying humanly connected while still staying as safe as possible. Read More …...
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I struggled with how to start this newsletter but I’ve been thinking about Allen Saunders’ quote (often attributed to John Lennon): “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Prescient, considering Lennon’s murder and appropriate now with COVID-19, our new Pearl Harbor or 911. I guess ...
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