THE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT BEAT  
Nicole Cabral, Associate Director of Public Engagement, delivering remarks during the Governing with Neighbors convening in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BUENOS AIRES: A GLOBAL MODEL OF INNOVATIVE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Civic participation not only matters, but is essential for a vibrant and inclusive city infrastructure. This is especially evident in places like Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although Buenos Aires is synonymous with tango dancing, steak, and fine wine, local leaders are positioning the city to be a global model of innovation in citizen participation. They will have the opportunity to showcase this in 2018 when Buenos Aires will be on the world's stage as they host the G20 Summit and the Special Olympics later this year. 

The promise and challenges of this work are evident in the way that citizens and government are working together in the poorer areas of the city. Far from the city's trendy neighborhoods or barrios, are underserved neighborhoods called villas. Often known as pockets of poverty, violence and inequality, these informal settlements of mainly immigrants from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, are home to over a quarter million residents and make up approximately 10 percent of Buenos Aires' population.  Read More
GET SOCIAL WITH US!

Some top tweets from  Vice President of Public Engagement, Matt Leighninger  

"As numerous academic studies show, the preferences of regular citizens have virtually no impact on public policy. This needs to change...Unfortunately, most people have a hard time defining the word 'democracy' in any meaningful way."  https://tinyurl.com/ydc33nxd

"How to make London a smart city is, perhaps, the wrong question. A better question: how can London use digital tools to improve people's lives? How can we do this while giving people agency? How can we give them democratic control over digital services?"  https://tinyurl.com/y953rgw7

The first citizens' assembly commissioned by Parliament in the UK will consider the best way to fund adult social care. The assembly is being run by Involve, a public participation charity that aims to put people at the heart of decision-making https://tinyurl.com/y88tuyk3   @involveUK

"While it's encouraging that 85 percent of governments and agencies are active on social media, they're often using social platforms merely as digital notice boards. To date, government agencies have scored very low in terms of two-way engagements online." https://t.co/sJIthzGng9

Five takeaways from the Innovations in Participatory Democracy conference, from the @JeffersonCtr https://tinyurl.com/y929r4jt

"Kristen Campbell: More than ever, people and organizations are finding - and using - their voice, embracing civic engagement in all its forms, recognizing that diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical strengths, and working together to create change."  https://tinyurl.com/y7z3bs3t

"Public engagement is often overlooked in technology innovation. It doesn't help that the public is frequently seen by innovators as uninformed or biased...listening to the values, concerns and aspirations of the public can inject new and valuable ideas" https://tinyurl.com/y8bjnmc4

Youth leadership through PB in Phoenix, New York, and at the Innovations in Participatory Democracy conference - https://tinyurl.com/y84htbr3

"How do you make Switzerland even more democratic? By involving randomly chosen citizens in the deliberation process ahead of popular votes. A research project first carried out in Oregon will test that practice, in part to address populist proposals." https://tinyurl.com/yagl9o5e

"1) Civic engagement is an ongoing, continual responsibility of institutions. 2) Robust civic engagement, like co-creation, requires culture change. 3) Good civic engagement requires governments and institutions to show how residents' input is being used."  https://tinyurl.com/y76n6oan

"Student-centered learning holds potential resonance with equity, but thus far has not fulfilled that potential and possibly poses some barriers."  https://tinyurl.com/y8ps4v8r  @NellieMaeEdFdn 

"We believe that independent funding of this research is critical, and hope that the program will help the public and policymakers better understand how Facebook is shaping our elections, social fabric, and democratic life."  https://tinyurl.com/yaapwlje  @DemocracyFund
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT OUT AND ABOUT
Montpelier, Vermont
Effective, Engaged Governance Workshop


The Public Engagement team is currently partnering with the  Vermont School Board Association (VSBA) on a project, supported by the  Nellie Mae Education Foundation, designed to assist school districts and  supervisory unions create equitable governance structures in the local school systems. 

In coordination with ongoing efforts to strengthen engagement in Vermont, Nicole, Matt, and Susan McCormack, along with Nicole Mace, Executive Director, and Susan Holson, Director of Education Services, at VSBA, facilitated a workshop on April 14th to discuss effective and equitable engagement in school boards. The workshop included small and large-group discussions, interactive exercises, case study examples of effective engaged school governance, and a session led by high school student Maggie Donahue.

Toronto, Ontario
Civic Engagement Workshop



In March, Matt led a workshop in Toronto, for city staff and nonprofit leaders that work on community engagement. Participants learned about participatory budgeting and other types of engagement that are happening in Toronto. The group also came up with goals and priorities for strengthening systems of civic engagement. Matt and Nicole will be leading a Public Engagement Strategy workshop in Toronto later this year - stay tuned for details.

You can read more about participatory budgeting across North America and Brazil here, here and  here.
IN COLLABORATION

LFI Faculty Voices Project

We recently completed work on a year-long  faculty engagement initiative with the 
League for Innovation in Community Colleges (LFI), with the goal of
amplifying the ongoing engagement efforts and  significantly improving the quality of dialogue and collaboration on issues related to faculty engagement. 

As part of this work,  the Public Engagement team held faculty engagement workshops at the Innovations Conference in Boston and San Francisco, and in 2017, Matt and Nicole were the keynote speakers at Learning Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona for around 300 community college faculty and administration.

Matt and Nicole created multiple  tools and resources to enhance and facilitate sustained engagement including  a discussion guide  that explores "how to best address barriers to community college completion"; to date it has already been used in nearly one hundred community college campuses across the country to enable faculty and administration to discuss student completion.

For this project, the Public Engagement team also a conducted a  Text, Talk, Engage exercise, and created an online  Common Ground for Action discussion guide to increase opportunities for faculty to engage. This suite of tools also includes a  facilitation guide, a set of training videos, an online moderation guide, a pre-recorded webinar that provides guidance and additional training tools for holding dialogues, and a set of infographics based on 2015 faculty survey data. 

Over the course of the year we will be highlighting each of these tools and how they can be used to engage campus communities in  decision-making and  governance . 

You can find more information and access the tools and resources here .
THE CIVIC TECH SPOT



#TextTalk2016 at Baruch College

In the months preceding the 2016 presidential election, Baruch College at the City University of New York (CUNY) held a series of election- and debate-related events called Campaign'16@Baruch. As part of this initiative, David Birdsell, dean of the school of public affairs, worked with the Public Engagement team to train staff and students on techniques to host interactive, deliberative discussions on the election. The goal was to help students, faculty, staff, and alumni reflect on what the election meant to them and the larger community.

Matt and Nicole designed Text, Talk, 2016 (or #TextTalk2016) a real-time, text-enabled, face-to-face conversation that members of the Baruch community could participate in no matter where they were. Participants texted "BARUCH" (or BEGIN) to 89800, then received a welcome text, immediately followed by a few polling questions about the campaign. Each participant texted a response and received a reply with the next question. Participants also received texts with links containing the aggregated results of the polling in real time. #TextTalk2016 encouraged dialogue that is personally meaningful, that stimulated thinking about actions that participants want to take, and that is part of a much larger conversation on the present and future of the country.

On the night of the third presidential debate, Baruch staff, students and alumni gathered in small groups on and off campus to participate in #TextTalk2016. The platform remained available for the Baruch community and Public Agenda's larger audience until the presidential election.

#TextTalk2016  provided the Baruch community with opportunities to explore different views surrounding the 2016 election. The overall response from the post-training surveys was extremely positive. In addition to having a positive experience during the training Baruch is interested in expanding their use of tools to engage in dialogue. 

The TextTalk platform can be used in other settings as well. Working with our partner, OneCounts, our team can create a similar text-enabled engagement platform and customize questions just for your needs. This is a great tool for public engagement on regional issues like transportation, housing and resiliency planning, and for issues that are statewide or national in scope. It is also a perfect compliment to organizing that you may be working on around the 2018 mid-term election.

For more information on incorporating this and other innovative engagement strategies in your work, contact [email protected].  
UPCOMING EVENTS
Public Engagement Strategy Workshop
We are partnering with the  Institute for Local Government  and the  Pepperdine School of Public Policy, Davenport Institute  to offer a Public Engagement  Strategy workshop, on November 6, 2018, to provide you with the tools and resources you need to authentically engage stakeholders in thoughtful, democratic processes. 

You can register  here .

More details for this West Coast workshop as well as the Toronto workshop will be shared in the coming weeks.
Interested in hosting a public engagement workshop?
Contact our Public Engagement team for more information. 
YOUR support will make a huge impact in the lives of your fellow citizens on a local and national level. Join us in creating a democracy that works for ALL!  
Public Agenda is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and expanding opportunity for all Americans. Through a unique understanding of how the public comes to judgment on complex problems, and expertise in research, public engagement and communications, Public Agenda helps communities build common ground and work together to improve education, health care, jobs, civic participation and other issues critical to a thriving democracy. Founded in 1975 by Dan Yankelovich and Cyrus Vance, Public Agenda is based in New York City.
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