Citizen participation Archives - Community Engagement Learning ExchangeCommunity Engagement Learning Exchange

Reflections on a four-year-old citizens academy program in Aspen, Colorado

This entry was contributed by Michelle Holder, on May 10th, 2019 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Outreach Methods.

I rolled into Aspen, Colorado in May 2015, my Civic coupe packed to the ceiling with my personal belongings. When I stepped outside to breathe in my new home, the mountain air felt cool and refreshing.

My goal was to start a citizens academy program for the City of Aspen. Five bulleted pages detailed my duties.

Among the goals and activities for the Academy were: “acquainting participants with the programs and problems of the community; stimulating their interest in community activities and encouraging their active participation; educate them about wide variety of community resources; help them connect with one another; and giving participants valuable personal leadership tools….”

Open Mic, Public Art, and Community Engagement

This entry was contributed by Joshua Rosenstein, on April 26th, 2019 at 11:02 am and is filed under Advisory Committees, Civic Education, Public Meetings.

I am Josh Rosenstein and I am a second year UNC-Chapel Hill MPA student getting ready to graduate from the School of Government. I usually blog over at MPA Matters, but it is a real pleasure to get to write a guest post over here about I topic I love and care about: community engagement.

I get to tell you about puppets, Frederick Douglass and community fun and learning.

Seven Observations about Public Engagement

This entry was contributed by Rick Morse, on February 6th, 2019 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Elected Officials, Outreach Methods.

In my role as an associate professor at the School of Government, I often find myself leading discussions with various groups on the topic of public engagement. Just within the last couple of months I have spoken with numerous current and future government officials about public engagement practice, including:

a local elected official here in Chapel Hill,
several local government staff members from various communities here in North Carolina,
dozens of MPA students, many of which are current public service practitioners, and
a group of government officers from India.

I also read a lot about and conduct research on various aspects of public engagement. With that in mind, there are some overarching observations or principles that I keep coming back to that I’d like to share here on the blog. Continue Reading

Targeted Online Advertising for Wider Participation – the Raleigh Citywide Bike Plan

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on March 10th, 2017 at 10:28 am and is filed under Accessibility, Capacity Building, Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Innovation, Online Participation, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings.

This post was written by Brad Johnson and Sharon Felton. Brad Johnson is the Director of Engagement for Raleigh based Cityzen. He assists with implementation of projects and consulting with staff on the best approach. A former member of a planning staff, he’s worked with over a hundred local government entities to optimize their online engagement.

Sharon Felton is the Communications Administrator with the City of Raleigh Public Affairs team. She works with departments, including the Department of City Planning, to implement communications strategies that best fit their needs.

The City of Raleigh was faced with a dilemma when approaching the public outreach portion of their citywide Bike Plan. A passionate, well established group of cyclists would be engaged throughout, but staff didn’t want to assume that they were the only stakeholders in the process. Reaching others for what would be a relatively technocratic discussion seemed like a big challenge. Continue Reading