Community Engagement Learning Exchange

Children’s Civic Engagement via the Scratch Online Platform

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on January 5th, 2016 at 9:00 am and is filed under Civic Education, Online Participation, Outreach Methods.

Our blog addressed Engaging Youth with Deliberative Problem-Solving where students from Colorado State University reached high school students to build their interest and skills in deliberation and democracy. In April 2015, these high school students participated in the nationwide mental health conversation which took place through a virtual interface only.

Now, I’m glad to see an examination of children’s civic engagement (ages 8-16) on the Scratch online platform.

Scratch is a creative community where children from around the world learn programming by designing and sharing interactive media projects. The researchers examined how young people related to issues of global importance, as well as with local topics and questions of community governance. They offer a typology of the strategies the young people use to express themselves, engage with their peers, and call for action.

Courtesy of the public involvement firm Bang the Table (based in Australia), some key points are: Continue Reading

Blog Highlights 2015 – a Sampler from the Community Engagement Blogging Team

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, Dan Bagley, Michelle Bir, Brian Bowman, Shawn Colvin, Emily Edmonds, Cate Elander, Traci Ethridge, Katy Harriger, Stephen Hopkins, Rick Morse, Kevin Smith, Melody Warnick, Jennifer Phillips, on December 30th, 2015 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Innovation, Online Participation, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings, Uncategorized.

We have gained many followers since the blog began in December 2014. In the spirit of looking back at this time of year, here is a “holiday sampler” of blog posts – many of which were authored early in the blog’s existence.

Happy holidays, and enjoy the “nibbles” of ideas, viewpoints, and challenges from the CELE blogging team.

Dan Bagley Turn to the Creative Conquerors

Michelle Bir Homeless Challenges: Magnanimity and Responsibility increases Effective Engagement

Brian Bowman Assessing Free Online Civic Engagement Tools – Three Examples

Internet Access Enhances Government Transparency, but Underserved Populations Remain

This entry was contributed by Brian Bowman, on December 28th, 2015 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Dialogue & Deliberation, Innovation, Online Participation, Outreach Methods, Uncategorized.

In the past 12 months, roughly one in three Americans has used the Internet or a smartphone app to access government information. The Pew Research Center says this access extends to all levels of government: federal, state, and local. As residents have secured improved broadband connections, and as government websites and apps have added features and improved usability, the numbers of people communicating with government online have risen accordingly.

A Pew Research survey says people are usually trying to accomplish one of six tasks:

Learn about government recreational activities
Renew their driver’s license or auto registration
Research government benefits
Pay a fine
Apply for or renew a government-issued hunting or fishing license
Report a problem that needs repair, such as potholes

As these popular tasks show, government websites and apps are much more than one-way sources of information; they provide the opportunity (usually free of charge) to complete tasks that used to require a trip. But as websites improve in functionality, public communicators should remember that there are some populations who may need additional consideration. Continue Reading

Greensboro Budget Exercise: Broad-based Involvement and Neighborhood Choice

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on December 21st, 2015 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Civic Education, Dialogue & Deliberation, Innovation, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings, Uncategorized.

Greensboro is the first city in the southeastern U.S. to try a model of outreach on city budget decisions called participatory budgeting (PB) http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/.

First used in many Brazilian communities, and more recently used in St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, New York and Vallejo (CA), PB in Greensboro is occurring through May 2016, with a recommendation to the City Council in time for their action in June on the Fiscal Year 2016-17 budget (FY16-17).

An overview, with short videos, is available at www.greensboro-nc.gov/pb.

The main steps are:

Residents brainstorm ideas,
Volunteer budget delegates have community conventions to develop specific proposals,
Residents attend expos and vote, and
The top projects win funding.

Each of the five council districts in Greensboro has reserved $100,000 in FY 16-17. Participants in those districts will gather and decide how to spend money from a list of projects in their district.

Right now, groups are learning about the PB process and beginning to generate ideas for how to spend the money in their respective districts. Community members can also submit their ideas on ideasgreensboro.org.

Two of the leaders of Greensboro PB are Ranata Reeder and Wayne Abraham. They offer answers to three questions:

How “Thick” or “Thin” is Your Civic Engagement Project?

This entry was contributed by Kevin Amirehsani, on December 15th, 2015 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Dialogue & Deliberation, Online Participation, Outreach Methods, Uncategorized.

One useful way to look at different methods of civic engagement is the division between “thick” and “thin” efforts. In the words of Matt Leighninger, Vice President of Public Engagement at Public Agenda, thick engagement “[enables] large numbers of people, working in small groups, to learn, decide, and act together,” while thin engagement involves people “as individuals rather than in groups.”

I don’t think it’s as simple as thick always being better than thin. Civic engagement is not a slice of cake. In fact, some of the best projects combine both styles of engagement, as I’ll illustrate below.

Thick vs. Thin

Thick engagements generally incorporate face-to-face meetings where participants share experiences, a number of policy options are presented and discussed, and concrete actions are subsequently planned.

Portsmouth Listens is often cited as a textbook illustration. Continue Reading

Public office terms: What is most beneficial to Fayetteville?

This entry was contributed by Michelle Bir, on December 11th, 2015 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Civic Education, Elected Officials.

In Fayetteville, North Carolina there has been discussion on whether or not to expand the city council and mayoral terms from two years to four. Sitting city officials have brought up the matter at public forums. They cite the difficulty of accomplishing the city’s goals in two years, particularly for new councilmen who have a learning curve when taking office. The Cumberland County Commissioners have four-year terms and they believe that it is appropriate to mirror their structure.

Some in Fayetteville believe that extending the two-year city council terms to four years makes sense. Councilman Larry Wright of District 7, has publicly voiced his concern that a two-year term is not enough to learn the ropes of city council and then launch and fund a re-election campaign.

Councilman Mitch Colvin of District 3 stated that taxpayers make an investment to train incoming council members because they have to travel out of town for training and state conferences. So it would not make sense financially to train a new councilman every two years.

A student’s view: Steps for Universities to advance student Civic Engagement

This entry was contributed by Katy Harriger, on December 3rd, 2015 at 7:32 am and is filed under Civic Education.

T.J. Smith is a senior majoring in Politics and International Affairs and minoring in Biology and Spanish at Wake Forest University. He is from Greensboro, NC and is highly engaged on campus and in the Winston-Salem community. In this post, he responds to our invitation to provide a student voice in the discussion about the role higher education institutions can play in civic life.

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As a guest author, I would like to write from the student perspective in discussing civic engagement. I will be responding to Dr. Harriger’s post on the teaching mission of the university and the university’s role in community-engaged research. In particular, I hope to use my own experience as a Wake Forest University student to illustrate two things the university can provide students in order to advance civic engagement.

First, the university must offer service learning but within the proper framing. I agree with Dr. Harriger’s post that too often college students are engaged in community projects that do more harm than good so I would like to offer a solution.

Passion-Driven Engagement for Social Change

This entry was contributed by Shawn Colvin, on November 30th, 2015 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Diversity, Innovation, Uncategorized.

When people find a purposeful passion for an issue, they are more likely to engage in matters related to that issue, both socially and politically.

As communities become more competent and public awareness is raised, there are moments when there becomes a need to create programs that challenge public policies perceived to marginalize the disadvantaged.

I recently read a book by Leonard Jason, Principles of Social Change, where he provides five principles for social change that transform passion into action which include:

-Determining the nature of the change desired

-Identifying the power holders

-Creating coalitions

-Learning patience and persistence

-Measuring your success

Engaged neighborhoods can attract business – A Richmond, VA Success

This entry was contributed by Candice Streett, on November 20th, 2015 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Advisory Committees, Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Online Participation, Outreach Methods.

In the summer of 2014, San Diego-based Stone Brewing Company sought to find a site to open an east coast production and distribution facility. Stone targeted a few cities in Virginia, Richmond being one, as possible locations.

The City of Richmond Economic Development Office, city officials, local politicians and many others worked to lure Stone Brewing to one of the two Richmond locations in which the company had shown an interest.

But it was neighborhood residents who caught the attention of Stone’s team, and who ultimately impacted the company’s decision.

Fayetteville History and City Symbols: the Weakness of Online Opinion

This entry was contributed by Michelle Bir, on November 16th, 2015 at 9:48 am and is filed under Online Participation, Outreach Methods.

On the heels of the June 2015 Charleston racially motivated massacre, that left 9 dead and one injured, there has been much discussion about the use of historical symbols by government entities. The overarching idea is that the government should not appear to be biased and should represent the interest of the entire community and not certain segments. The Market House in downtown Fayetteville is one of those symbols up for debate.

The Market House is rich in history and southern heritage. According to Barksdale (2015), the original building that sat where the Market House sits now, once served as the State House in which the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789. When that building burned in the Great Fire of 1831, the Market House was erected in its place in 1832 . The site also hosted a Civil War battle in which Confederate Lieutenant General Wade Hampton killed 11 Union soldiers and captured a dozen more.

The unique architecture employs a town hall-market scheme found in England and is the only National Landmark in Cumberland County (National Park Service, 2008). The second floor of the structure was used as the town hall and a general meeting place. On the first floor vendors came to sell meat, produce, and the occasional human.

Yes, I said human. Slaves were auctioned primarily under estate liquidation or to pay a debt. The actual number of slaves sold is ambiguous, but it happened, on the steps surrounding the structure.