I recently had the opportunity to participate in a full-day ICMA workshop on community engagement.  The session, featuring some of the best minds in the business of civic engagement and public participation,  sought to educate managers and their staffs on the steps necessary to build an effective, long-term, multi-faceted engagement strategy  and to share techniques and approaches for increasing quality public participation in their communities.

As a former local government manager, I learned  a lot from this program and it was information that I wish I had better understood during my career when I really wanted to effectively work with the public.  Sometimes we feel we have done our job when we hold a public hearing or send out a newsletter, tweet about  our events, or share some photos on a Facebook post.  But, in this day and age when many families have two breadwinners and kids are "overprogrammed" with school and recreational events, it is difficult for even the most loyal citizen to know what is going on in their community and contribute effectively to local decisionmaking with simply "informational approaches." While information is important, we  stop short of true engagement when all we seek to do is inform people about what is going on in the community.   

Because this is such important work, I thought I would share my top 5 "takeaways" from this session that could be applied to any public sector engagement program or strategy: 

1.  First and foremost, no "one-size-fits-all" approach works as well as a comprehensive program for engagement.  While that sounds intuitive,  you do need to approach engagement comprehensively and match the approach you take toward engagement with your intended purpose , the outcomes you hope to obtain, and the promise you are willing to make to the public in the engagement effort.    The IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation and a similar document, the Spectrum of Public Engagement Activities by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, both afford great insight into the various types of approaches that should be part of an effective engagement strategy.  These documents can be found in the CMS Resource Library under  civic engagement.

2.  It is imperative that common agreement exists between the local government owner and the public on what role the public can serve in an engagement effort.    Everyone needs to understand the purpose of the engagement effort.  If you intend solely to "inform" the public about an activity/project, they need to understand that.  If your goal is to "consult" the public then they need to understand that you will listen and provide feedback as to how they influenced the decision.  If the goal is to "collaborate" with citizens, then they need to understand that you are looking to them for advice and innovation in formulating solutions and that you will incorporate their advice into your decisions to the greatest extent possible.  The key here is both the local government and the citizens truly understanding the roles that they will play in the process.   Again, the IAP2 Spectrum can be of great value in planning your engagement efforts and in ensuring the "promise" you make to the public.

3.  All local governments need a long-term engagement plan that is not crisis-driven.  We all work hard to engage our citizens when we are confronted with a crisis, but this type of work needs to be sustained overtime and be undertaken in good times as well as bad.  This helps to build community and build momentum for citizen support and assistance in the work we do. 

4.  Use a multi-sector approach to engagement utilizing existing groups in the community, including homeowners associations, civic groups, service clubs, and the faith-based community.    We have existing opportunities through such organizations to reach out to groups of people who have a vested interest in their community.  When we involve people from such organizations, they in turn help to reach out to others building a solid network for embedded and sustained engagement in the community.  They can be great problem solvers as well!

5.  Incorporate both online and face to face opportunities.  Effective engagement strategies will involve both types of interaction.   Make sure your online efforts support face-to-face opportunities and not replace them.

ICMA will be hosting another of these full-day civic engagement workshops on July 17 in Boston, Massachusetts.  For more information on this program and how you get your own "takeaways" on the important topic of community engagement, please visit icma.org/workshopce.