Author Archives: Roshan Bliss

NCDD Member is New ED at Journalism that Matters

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We are so pleased to announce that our friends at Journalism that Matters have selected a new Executive Director from NCDD’s ranks. Peggy Holman is a long-time NCDD member and friend, and we’re proud of her and all she’s accomplished. We look forward to continuing to work with her at Journalism That Matters. You can read the announcement below or read the original on JTM’s website here.

Journalism that Matters is excited to announce that Peggy Holman, a JTM co-founder and long-time board member is now serving as the organization’s Executive Director.

In 2001, Holman joined three career journalists in founding Journalism that Matters to support the pioneers who are shaping the emerging news and information ecology.

In her new role, Holman will oversee JTM’s growth as the organization matures beyond event production and expands into a hub for supporting journalism innovation and community engagement. Said Holman:

“I see an opportunity for us to fill a vital niche by connecting people who are reinventing ways in which the public’s voice enters into news and information. News organizations that are forging new ground around engagement often find themselves alone in the wilderness. We want to provide a place for them to benefit from each other’s work.”

Holman will continue to oversee the Illuminations Project, an initiative shining a light on what’s working in the changing news landscape, that JTM has produced since last year. She is also leading development of the Engagement Hub initiative, a collaborative endeavor to create a peer-based community of practice for sharing resources, connecting people, and growing understanding and skills for journalism that engages communities. Both projects were made possible by a generous grant from the Mott Foundation.

An author and consultant based out of the Seattle area, Holman brings to her new role her experience with engaging organizations and communities in discovering creative solutions to complex issues.

In the second edition of The Change Handbook, she joined with her co-authors to profile sixty-one engagement processes.  Her award-winning book, Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity, dives beneath these methods to make visible deeper patterns, principles, and practices for engagement that can guide us through turbulent times.

Journalism That Matters is a nonprofit that convenes conversations to foster collaboration, innovation, and action so that a diverse news and information ecosystem helps communities to thrive. A core belief: journalism matters most when it is of, by, and for the people. Best known for convening unconferences, JTM has a proven track record catalyzing disruptive innovation and fostering new collaborations within the news industry.

The original version of this post can be found at www.journalismthatmatters.net/jtm_announces_new_executive_director.

Update to Civic Tech Business & Investment Study

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Back in December, we posted about a new study that the Knight Foundation had just released about trends in “civic tech” business, and at the time, they were looking for more feedback from professionals in our field to bolster the analysis. Well they recently released an update to their study including the info from new contributors. We encourage you to read about the update below or find the original announcement here.

Knight-Foundation-logo

You spoke, we responded.

In December 2013, Knight Foundation released an analysis of activity and investment in civic tech which captured 209 companies and more than $430 million in investment between January 2011 and May 2013. To build on that initial analysis, we published all the data and asked people to suggest additional data they believed was missing from the report. Since then, we’ve received dozens of emails from peers in the budding civic tech community proposing additions.

Today, we’re releasing an updated version of the civic tech investment analysis, which includes an additional 32 companies and $265 million of investment. That brings the total to 241 organizations having received more than $695 million in investment from 2011 to 2013. The data crowdsourced by you and your peers in the civic tech field was crucial for incorporating organizations and investment data missing from the original report. We also updated the report to include investments made through the end of 2013, providing an additional seven months of investment data not captured in the original report.

More than anything, we’re excited about all the conversations the report triggered concerning the ongoing development of the civic tech field. Take for example this Twitter civic tech group with Twitter handles of organizations identified in the report created by Scott Phillips of Civic Ninjas. Many more have reached out, especially funders, about convening funders around co-investment opportunities in this space.

By documenting a clearer picture of activity and investment, the report begins to set the stage for a discussion about the impact of civic tech.  Several people have asked us what’s known about the effectiveness of new civic tech tools identified in the report. In the months ahead, Knight will share insights from its own experiences supporting civic tech tools along with assessment resources for practitioners in the field. But we’re also interested in fostering a broader conversation geared around more consistently documenting the impact of civic tech tools and trends on open government, civic engagement and in promoting healthy, vibrant cities.

We also continue to welcome your feedback and suggestions so we can keep updating the analysis over the course of the year. Civic tech is a dynamic sector, and we want to continue to capture what’s happening. It will help the community better understand the opportunities that exist and to develop strategies that increase the effectiveness of new investments.

You can find the original version of this post at www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2014/2/26/civic-tech-analysis-expanded-with-your-feedback.

Montreal Symposium on Professionalizing Our Field

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We recently heard about an exciting conference happening in Montreal this July that we want to make sure our NCDD members know about. The conference, hosted by the Canadian Institut du Nouveau Monde, takes place during the IPSA’s annual gathering, and is part of the important conversation about the professional future of our field. Check out the announcement below or find out more at the IPSA’s conference website here.

INM logoThe Institut du Nouveau Monde, a Canadian nongovernmental organization dedicated to public participation, is pleased to invite NCDD members to attend a symposium entitled “Developing expertise in the design of participatory tools: The professionalization and diversification of the public participation field”, that will be held in Montreal July 21-22, 2014 during the annual conference of International Political Science Association (IPSA).

The symposium intends to better understand the conditions involved in the negotiation of the participatory design by looking at the actors that initiate and organize public participation. What are the effects of this professionalization of public participation? Does it compromise or encourage the democratic aims associated with public participation? Is it better to use private consultants, to train public servants to oversee public participation, or to set up an autonomous public organization devoted to public participation? How does the approach that public participation professionals take affect their abilities to design effective public participation mechanisms? The approach chosen to answer these questions is a dialogue between researchers and practitioners for a heuristic confrontation of knowledge and experiences.

About twenty researchers are expected to participate in the scientific segments of the two-day programme (see “Panels” in the preliminary programme). Other segments of the Symposium, the “Round Table” and the “Open Space”, mean to engage with public participation practitioners. Our guest practitioners for the Round Table are:

  • Simon Burral, Executive Director of Involve (London, UK)
  • Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks Founding Member and Director and Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (Washington D.C., USA)
  • Peter MacLeod, Principal and Co-founder of MASS LBP (Ontario, Canada)
  • Michel Venne, General Director of the Institut du Nouveau Monde (Québec, Canada)

You can view the preliminary program for more information.

Please don’t hesitate to forward this invitation through to anyone you think would be interested to come to Montreal to assist to this symposium. The more practitioners present, the more interesting the discussions will be!

Upon interest, there are two registration options:

  • Participation to this symposium ONLY (July 21-22th) costs $40 per individual (special event rate).
  • Participation to the ENTIRE IPSA Congress (access to all activities July 19-24) is $260 for early registration.

If you choose option 1, send an email to malorie.flon@inm.qc.ca and she will inform the IPSA secretariat to send you a special registration link.

If you choose option 2, you can now register on the IPSA website: www.ipsa.org/events/congress/montreal2014/registration. You will have to pay the association membership fee ($160 for a regular member, $50 for students). We hope to see you there!

You can find the preliminary program for this conference at www.ncdd.org/main/wp-content/uploads/IPSA-Prelim-Program.pdf. More information on the IPSA annual gathering is available at www.ipsa.org/events/congress/montreal2014/theme.

Register for SDCN’s PULSE Retreat by Mar. 17th

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We are pleased to highlight a new college-based initiative from the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) – an NCDD organizational member. They will be launching the PULSE sustained dialogue retreat for college students this July 20-25 in Lewisburg, PA. The deadline for application is March 17th, so we highly encourage our members to apply today! You read more about the PULSE gathering below or by visiting the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network website here.

SDCNThe International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) is thrilled to announce the creation of PULSE - a new college retreat program designed to explore identity, leadership, and inclusion and prepare students to tackle the challenges of a global 21st century. PULSE is the latest addition to our work with campuses to build more inclusive and engaged environments and shape life-long leaders and problem solvers.

With generous support from the Roger I. and Ruth B. MacFarlane Foundation, the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), the college campus initiative of IISD, is organizing the inaugural PULSE Institute to be held this summer…

To build PULSE, SDCN is incorporating cutting-edge research and lessons learned from innovative programs nationwide. One of the models of engagement informing PULSE is Common Ground, a program developed by students at Duke University in 2003, involving a four-day, student-led immersion retreat off-campus dedicated to exploring human relations (e.g., race, gender, class, sexuality, faith) through personal and group experiential activities and dialogue…

At the PULSE Institute, teams of students, faculty, and administrators from ten schools will experience the retreat curriculum firsthand while fine tuning Sustained Dialogue skills and practicing mindfulness and effective leadership. At the conclusion of the retreat, participants will learn how to implement this new model on their respective campuses with a peer-led, student-facilitated, and administrator-supported approach. PULSE is open to all US-based colleges and universities, including the 27 Sustained Dialogue Campus Network schools. The inaugural Institute will be held July 20 – 25, 2014 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Application details are available on the SDCN website.

The PULSE retreat program will forge deep relationships among participants, encourage intense and meaningful exploration of structural inequities, strengthen critical thinking and mindfulness skills, and develop other global competencies. Returning to campus, small groups will continue to meet to address through sustainable action projects the issues identified at PULSE. This model – retreat + continued conversation – aligns with current research demonstrating that an intense, immersive experience followed by sustained engagement is the best way to create attitudinal and behavioral change.

Integrating the principles of programs like Common Ground and Sustained Dialogue builds on complementary strengths and bolsters SDCN’s mission of creating social change agents on campuses, in communities, and in workplaces long after graduation. For example:

  • Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, the majority will always adopt their belief. With this strategy, we want to directly touch 10% of each campus and 10% of higher education institutions.
  • PULSE + Sustained Dialogue consistently contributes to the development of strong student leaders, new campus initiatives, and more inclusive community norms. The campus and wider community benefit from students’ new knowledge and relationships.
  • Workplaces and communities across the country will benefit from alumni skilled in sustained dialogue. Employers rank the ability to “solve problems and make decisions, resolve conflict and negotiate, cooperate with others, and listen actively” as skills most desired – and most deficient – in entry-level workers. These are outcomes of PULSE + Sustained Dialogue.

For more information about this initiative and the Institute application process, please visit the PULSE page on our website or contact PULSE Director Christopher Scoville at scoville@sdcampusnetwork.org.

About IISD and SDCN

The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 that develops everyday leaders who engage differences as strengths to improve their campuses, workplaces, and communities. A primary initiative of IISD is the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), which engages 27 campuses (in the US and six countries worldwide), 4,500 students, and 4,000 alumni annually. SDCN participants meet weekly for results-oriented dialogue, building relationships around topics such as race, class, gender, and faith, while simultaneously addressing pressing needs in their communities.

The five-stage, dialogue-to-action model of Sustained Dialogue is based on the work of Dr. Harold Saunders and includes identifying who needs to be involved in a continued process in order to leverage change (stage 1), building trust and transforming relationships among group participants (stage 2), identifying root causes of issues in the community (stage 3), envisioning future scenarios to address the root cause (stage 4), and working together to enact change (stage 5).

Full details on the PULSE retreat are available at www.sdcampusnetwork.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/6999.

CM Community Broadband Conference Call, Thurs. 3/13

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CM_logo-200pxNCDD is part of the CommunityMatters partnership, and we are excited to announce the next installment of CM’s monthly 60-minute conversation about critical issues, tools, and inspiring stories of community building is coming up this Thursday, March 13th, from 2 -3pm EST. This month’s conference call is titled “Community Broadband Networks“, and we encourage you to register for it today by clicking here.

The call will feature insights from special guests Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Billy Ray of the Glasgow Electric Plant Board. Check out this brief preview of the call:

Slow internet stinks. It kills business growth, hinders education, impedes health care services, and generally just makes life a little less enjoyable. But what can you do? Aren’t we all just stuck with the service we’ve got?

What if there was a solution that offered fast, affordable and reliable internet service, while benefiting your community and your economy? This, my friend, is what Community Broadband Networks have to offer.

On the next CommunityMatters® conference call, Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Billy Ray of Glasgow Electric Plant Board will join us to talk about Community Broadband Networks, publicly-owned providers of high-speed internet. You’ll learn about the benefits of community broadband along with tips for getting started with a network in your city or town.

We also suggest that you check out the most recent CM blog post by Caitlyn Horose about how community broadband networks work. The post is full of helpful resources and links, and we’ve included it below. You can find the original post here.

We hope to hear you on the call next week!

Frustrated With Low-Speed Internet? Community Broadband Networks Offer Another Way

There are dozens of reasons your community is great.

The area’s natural beauty, the historic buildings and unique character. The wonderful people, the cute coffee shop, the vibrant downtown night scene.

Most people don’t have much trouble talking about why they love their town. But, what do you say when it comes to the things that make your community’s economy vibrant and resilient? You might start with tax incentives, property values, a robust and well-maintained transportation system. You can mention educational attainment, affordability, the buy local campaign to support small businesses. But, no matter how educated, how beautiful, how affordable your community, it is really difficult to sustain a competitive economy without fast internet.

Broadband, or high-speed internet access, is essential for local businesses to thrive, for students to access the best educational opportunities, for people to connect with each other and participate fully in the information age. In some states, broadband access is not available to as much as 15% of the population (excluding mobile technology). The broadband gap is felt most in rural and low-income areas, where investment in technology infrastructure can seem risky for large companies. And, even in areas where access is more prolific, service may not be reliable or affordable.

For communities without broadband, or where competition is limited, there is a solution.

Many cities and towns across the country are creating their own community broadband networks. Owned by municipal governments, non-profit organizations, or cooperatives, these publicly-owned utilities are providing local service that is fast, reliable and affordable. Establishing a local internet provider may seem like a pie-in-the-sky idea, but over 180 cities and towns in the United States have some publicly-owned fiber service for parts of their community. These utilities serve local needs, focusing less on profit and more on providing services that benefit community goals.

The most obvious motivation for community broadband is to support economic development. In Lafayette, Louisiana, the fiber-optic network intiated by Lafayette Utilities System was key to attracting a satellite office for Pixel Magic. A similar story comes from Martinsville, Virginia where the expansion of the Martinsville Informational Network helped attract a research facility, manufacturing plant and distribution center. Other communities have successfully attracted mid-size corporations as a result of community broadband, but the economic benefits aren’t just about business recruitment.

For many places, updated technology is about keeping local businesses alive. To stay competitive, local businesses must keep up with customer demands for reliable and fast-loading pages. What happens to a small retailer with slow internet in an age when online shoppers expect pages to load in two seconds or fewer? Wilson, North Carolina doesn’t have this worry. In North Carolina’s first gig city, Greenlight Community Broadband focused in on Upper Coastal Plain Council of Government’s business incubator. Once serving primarily low-tech start ups, the incubator is now better able to support economic health in Wilson by providing for the needs of high-tech ventures.

Community Broadband Networks are also enhancing quality of life in ways that go beyond economics.

Broadband plays an important role in supplying high quality educational opportunities for teachers and students. Digital learning is no longer the future – it’s the norm. But, according to Education Superhighway, 72% of K-12 public schools in the U.S. do not have sufficient Internet infrastructure for digital learning. Community networks are stepping in to ensure schools don’t fall behind. Thanks to Community Network Services in rural Georgia, a public network initially established for schools, hospitals and businesses, students can participatein interactive demonstrations with scientists at Georgia Tech.

Publicly-owned broadband networks are also serving a critical role when it comes to health care. A pilot project in Westminster, Maryland is bringing community broadband to a local retirement home. As part of the project, viability of telehealth services will be explored – things like consultations, patient monitoring and physician training.

There are social and civic benefits to broadband as well. Residents can overcome geographic dispersion and isolation through video conferencing and social media. Citizens can obtain data from their local government to get informed about community issues. Government agencies can use mobile apps and other new technology to engage residents and gather feedback. And, yes, broadband is appreciated by those that spend their leisure time streaming movies or playing online games.

If you’re tired of downloading files only on your lunch break or sick of eternally buffering videos, community broadband offers another way.

On the next CommunityMatters conference call, Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and host of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast will share more about why our communities need broadband, and how community-owned networks can offer a viable service.

We’ll also hear from Billy Ray of Glasgow Electric Plant Board in Glasgow, Kentucky.  Billy helped spearhead efforts to create the first municipal broadband network in the country.

Join us for our free conference call on Thursday, March 13 from 2-3pm Eastern.  You’ll learn about the benefits of publicly-owned broadband along with tips for getting started with a community network in your city or town.

You can find the original version of this post at www.communitymatters.org/blog/frustrated-low-speed-internet-community-broadband-networks-offer-another-way.

Webinar on Effective Board Meetings, Wed. 3/12

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We recently were informed of a great opportunity coming up this week for those of us involved in non-profit work. Accomplished facilitator and NCDD supporting member Rick Lent is hosting a webinar this Wednesday, March 12th, from 1 – 2pm EST called “Tools for More Effective Non-Profit Board Meetings“.

Rick describes the webinar this way:

While each board situation is unique, there are common challenges facing the conduct of effective nonprofit board meetings. These challenges include board size (typically 10, 12 or more), use of time, decision-making, and ability to keep members engaged and committed to the work. In this session I share a number of tools that can help boards have more effective meetings. These tools help you structure the meeting and do not require special training or facilitation skills. You can use them to improve your very next board meeting.

I’ll give you tools for improving your meetings so that you can:

  • Conduct more efficient and effective board meetings.
  • Create meetings that build broader commitment to decisions.
  • Achieve broader engagement and follow-up.

If you are part of a non-profit board, we encourage you consider attending the webinar. You can find register for the session at www1.gotomeeting.com/register/570063769. For more information, you can find Rick’s listing of the webinar by clicking here.

Join us April 24th for Text, Talk, Act on Mental Health – Part II Electric Boogaloo

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creating solutions

As you know, NCDD is part of the collaboration running the Creating Community Solutions national dialogue effort aimed at tackling mental health issues in our communities. We have been supporting the effort in many ways, including collaborating on the “Text, Talk, Act” nationwide text-enhanced dialogue last December.

We are pleased to announce that another installment of the Text, Talk, Act conversation will be taking place this April 24th.

The Text, Talk, Act to Improve Mental Health conversation will be an hour-long event that uses text messaging to get people talking about mental health and encourage them to take action. The hope is that through this event, young people (and not-so-young people!) can have a conversation with their peers and give voice to an issue that can otherwise be difficult for them to speak about.

Last year’s event was a big success, with an estimated 2,000 people participating in the conversation (600 phones). Participants described the event this way:

We encourage NCDD members–especially those of you based at universities and high schools–to participate in this important effort. On April 24th, you can dial in and participate in the conversation, or better yet, you can convene your own dialogue event on mental health and use the Text, Talk, Act event as a starting point for your own conversations. We would love to see NCDD members hosting their own conversations, and if you do, we ask that you register your event so that it can be listed on the Creating Community Solutions dialogue map.

It’s easy to get plugged into the event by following these simple steps:

  1. At any time on April 24th, gather 3-4 of your friends, family, classmates, students, and/or colleagues;
  2. Text “start” to 89800; and
  3. Receive polling and discussion questions via text messaging while having a face-to-face dialogue with your group.

Learn more by visiting www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/texttalkact. You can also watch and share the informational video on the campaign.

We hope to see many of you join in this important nationwide conversation on April 24th!

TTA-II-Infographic

PBP News: Funding Priorities & the 3rd Int’l PB Conference

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PBP-logoI personally am a big fan of the work being done by our friends at the Participatory Budgeting Project, and they made two pretty exciting announcements recently that we wanted to share with you.

First, as an exercise in walking the talk, the PBP asked its donors to decide how they should spend the money they donated in the coming year, and the results of the vote are in:

The polls have closed and the votes are tallied…we are thrilled to announce the results of PBP’s second annual PB2 process! To practice what we preach, last fall we invited PB organizers far and wide to help us brainstorm and prioritize project ideas for moving PB forward in North America. Then we asked everyone who donated to PBP last year to vote on which projects to fund in 2014…

We committed to use half the money raised in donations to fund the projects with the most votes. Thanks to the generous contributions of 193 supporters, we raised over $28,000 total, so roughly $14,000 for PB2. This means that we can fund the top two projects above: an Organizing for PB Toolkit and a Youth PB Campaign!

Stay tuned for more info on these two projects! We’ll also do our best to move forward on the other priorities, through in-kind support and other revenue resources. And if you missed your chance to give and vote, please consider donating to PBP now, so that we can carry out more of your PB priorities.

Our young people will never be prepared to be effective participants in a democratic society if they never have a chance to practice, so it is quite exciting to see PBP focusing on engaging young people in their participatory process! We look forward to hearing more about how the work goes.

Second, PBP has announced the dates for their 3rd international conference:

PBP is happy to announce that our 3rd International Conference on Participatory Budgeting will take place September 25-28, 2014 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be posting information about flights, hotels, registration and conference venues. In the meantime, please mark your calendars and stay tuned.  You can browse past conference sessions here and send questions or comments to conference@participatorybudgeting.org.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our e-newsletter to receive regular conference updates.

We encourage you to save the date and consider attending this exciting gathering! You can find out more about PBP at www.participatorybudgeting.org.

Next Generation Initiative Advances State Legislature Civility

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We’re pleased to be able to highlight The Next Generation Initiative, a fantastic project driven by NCDD supporting member and former Ohio state representative Ted Celeste of the National Institute on Civil Discourse. Next Generation is trying to help state legislators find ways to be more civil with each other as they create legislation, and we think it’s fundamentally important work. To get a sense of what the initiative is about, check out this great article from Akron Legal News that recently covered Ted’s work. You can read more below or find the original piece here and on NICD’s blog here.

NICD_logo3When former state representative Ted Celeste campaigned for his Lakewood seat in 2006, he said he chose to run with civility.

“All the political pros said that the only way to beat an opponent is to beat them up. Do nasty things, go negative,” he said. “I said the only way I’ll do it is if I can run a positive campaign.”

“We did that and won.”

After taking that lesson to the Statehouse, Celeste embarked along with Ohio Sen. Frank LaRose (R – Copley Twp.) to take the message throughout the state and nation through their work in the General Assembly and Next Generation, an offshoot of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD).

On Jan. 16, both lawmakers addressed their plan to bring politesse back to American politics at the monthly Akron Roundtable at Quaker Station.

After failing in his 2012 U.S. House bid, Celeste founded Next Generation as a state-level project of NICD, which focuses on promoting civility within mass media and the legislative and executive branches of national government. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton chair the nonpartisan center that formed in response to the shooting of former U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords in 2011.

Celeste said he felt the need to launch Next Generation, which offers workshops to state lawmakers across the country, because over half of the United States Congress – hovering at all-time low approval ratings – consists of former state legislators.

“We are the feeder system,” Celeste said.

Next Generation offered an introductory workshop for state legislators that it has presented in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Washington, according to Celeste. Celeste also presented the workshop to the Council of State Governments’ Midwest and West conferences. He said he hopes to hold the workshop in a dozen other states by this year’s end.

“I’m excited for the fact it’s going so well nationally,” he said.

The project faces difficulty in the partisan culture that dominates state politics, and lawmakers received reprimands from their caucases for attending the civility sessions, said Celeste.

“Their leadership didn’t like the fact that they were working with a person across the aisle,” he said.

LaRose involved himself with Celeste’s mission after attending an NICD session soon after his election.

“When I first ran in 2010 I think I knew that policy tends to evoke strong emotions from people, but I didn’t really grasp it until I was out campaigning myself, then through service in Columbus,” he said.

“When it goes too far is when people take that passion they have and they manifest it in personal animosity against people that have a different opinion.”

LaRose, a first-term senator with a military background, has in only three years earned a reputation for reaching across the aisle. He and State Sen. Tom Sawyer (D – Akron) drew headlines for drafting legislation to fix Ohio’s much-maligned gerrymandering that passed the Senate but expired in the House the last legislative session.

LaRose told the assembled Akron-area professionals that he believes the nature of democracy tends to “actively discourage” mutual cooperation and courtesy, easily seen from the vitriol of recent Akron politics to the perpetually locked pitchforks in Congress. One of the underlying causes, according to the young lawmaker, is the lack of opportunities to personally interact with opposing politicians.

“Legislatures seem to have become in recent years a little more transactional than they used to be,” LaRose said.

“There are not the opportunities to build relationships and get to know one another, to learn about each other’s spouses and families, where you come from, what drives you and makes you excited.”

Celeste added that regulations that prohibit spending public funds on social gatherings have recently stifled social interaction between lawmakers.

Though LaRose acknowledged that mainstream media and cultural norms tend to exacerbate the problem, he focused on practical solutions to implement in the Ohio Statehouse.

For many, he said, the mindset remains “come to Columbus, make laws and go home.”

LaRose suggested launching a program in which legislators trade districts for a day to gain additional perspective. He also pushed for more training on civility at the mandatory new member orientation.

Redistricting reform, a topic for which he and Sawyer drew headlines last year, also presents a problem, he said. LaRose hopes their bipartisan plan will pass both houses this term.

“If we don’t get something done in the next few years, the window closes,” he said. “The closer we get to 2020, which is the next census and the next time we draw redistricting lines, the less likely we are going to be able to have bipartisan agreement on this.”

Both Celeste and LaRose also agreed that term limits hinder their mission for civility; by their estimation, more time to get to know colleagues translates to more amicable relationships.

“Civility isn’t caving in,” said LaRose. “It’s not sissy to be civil.”

Celeste and LaRose ended their presentation by answering a question from the audience: What can the average citizen do to promote civility in government?

Celeste and LaRose agreed that voters should support those that promote civility in that statehouse, but LaRose said they could do more.

“Don’t just vote for the person with the most yard signs out,” he said. “Pay attention to who you’re selecting.

“It’s also modeling that sort of behavior with your family and at work. It’s to change how we communicate with each other.”

The original version of this article can be found at www.akronlegalnews.com/editorial/9140. To learn more about the Next Generation initiative, check out the video below or visit http://nicd.arizona.edu/next-generation-initiative-state-workshops-civil.

Improving Public Engagement with Games

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Public participation processes can often be boring, tedious things to participate in, and finding ways to make them more fun and engaging is a recurring issue. But that’s why a growing sector of our field and others have been turning to “gamification” as a model for making sure citizens get the most out of their participation and enjoy themselves, too.

Andrew Coulson wrote a great piece for commsgodigital about gamification and engagement that we encourage NCDD members to give a read. You can read the article below or find the original piece here.

Gamification in Community Engagement Part 1: Offline

One of the biggest franchises at the moment in both literature and film is the Hunger Games. The story of how a world, not to dissimilar to ours, pits its own young against each other as a way of sorting out an age old issue between communities.

OK, OK I’m adlibbing a bit and it has very tenuous ties to engaging the community… but I need an edge for the blog.

Many games use strategy (where to hide, what to take), team work (Katniss and Peeta) and problem management (How do we kill the others before they kill us?) to help the player achieve goals (survival in the Hunger Games), which, if used in Community Engagement opportunities, allows the right decision to be achieved through understanding barriers, working together, and setting joint achievable objects. We know gaming is not new, but Gamification in Community Engagement certainly seems to be on the rise and being used more and more in issue management and relationship building between communities and their councils.

From early use of established offline games to newly developed, all-whistles-blowing online options, games are now being used more and more in engaging the community or helping people understand and generally participate in having their say in the decision making process.

In true commsgodigital style, over 2 installments, we’re going list a number of on and offline Gamification offerings in the world of community engagement and communication in the hope you will like them and, in a spark of inspiration, look at them as options in the work you do during 2014.

(Warning: We are not advocating the use of the Hunger Games model as an option for community engagement… it just doesn’t cut the mustard with some stakeholders.)

Offline

When asking for examples using LinkedIn, a number of people shared their experiences with me on how they had used games, both traditional and newly developed, in engaging communities to do, it seems, 1 or all of 4 things.

  • To engage
  • To inform/build understanding
  • To build relationships/teamwork
  • Break the ice

Gwenda Johnson, a County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences, Kentucky, said, “I often use floor puzzles to demonstrate community and the role people play in building a strong community. Sometimes I reserve some pieces to start a conversation about people who don’t follow through with responsibility. The 48 piece floor puzzles works well in our small community. It’s a great inexpensive way to start conversation and build team work too.”

So a few of my favourite examples:

The Public Space Trading Cards by Learning from Barcelona

Do you remember as a kid those card games where some cards ranked higher than others and the object was to collect them all by outwitting your opponent with a card that scored higher than theirs? We called it “Top Trumps” in the UK.

Learning from Barcelona have developed a similar Trading Card game where neighbourhood kids are tasked with collecting sets of cards depicting places in their neighbourhood by answering questions on the back on how to improve the area. Once collected they can be played with and traded. Here’s a better description.
barcelonaThe game allows people to become a detective in the own residential area and look at the built environment in a different light as well as think how improvements can be made. This informs them on issues facing the area whilst the cards questions help the local authority/project management to collect useful insights for future development. The game also builds in a sense of ownership for the area.

Cards games are also popular with David Wilcox at socialreporter.com, London who, via LinkedIn, shared examples he had developed as well as others he had come across. Take a look at Useful Games and Ingredients and tool cards for examples.

I myself used the card option in a game format when supporting the engagement of a community around the renewal of a small reserve in Salisbury, South Australia. Using cards with potential options on for the renewal (trees, equipment, amenities, etc.) as well as a hypothetical budgetary value, we gave players a map, a budget, and a shopping list as well as a stack of cards. They then used the cards and map to plan what they would buy and then place in the reserve. Adding an element of role play encouraged discussions on the needs and wants of the community for this space. There was also a wild card that could be used if we had missed anything or they had a great idea they wanted added to the discussion.

The Game of Urban Renewal by Toronto visual artist Flavio Trevisan

This game builds on the traditional board game structure and is kind of a cross between Monopoly, a puzzle, and children’s favourite, Lego, and who doesn’t like that combination!

As a board game, it allows players to take on the role of those involved in a councils planning office making decisions on what to build and knock down in their local area to make the community a better place to live. Players use cards that depict tasks on developing areas with specific functions such as public spaces, schools, commercial buildings, and housing using a real satellite imaged map of the area and 3D blocks to represent urban development.

The game aims to get players discussing and visioning possible solutions to urban development and renewal. Find out more about the Game of Urban Renewal.

Via LinkedIn Paul Tucker, a Partner a GRIN SW, Exeter mentioned Boom Town from 1990 which seems to have similar feel. Here’s the games description:

“Famous rare game from Ian Livingstone’s company, players construct a 1950s English new town by laying tiles to show housing, shops, factories, etc. As parts of the suburbs are completed, scoring goes to the majority holder, but there are spoiler tiles, like the rubbish dump, which will reduce your score. There’s a strong element of mutual caution until somebody steps over the brink and lays those bad tiles.”

Whose Shoes? Toolkit,  My Life, My Budget and the Last Straw!

These three board games/toolkits are personal favourites of mine and are used to help the player build an understanding/appreciation around a certain topic. Often these games don’t have outcomes (as in there is no individual winner at the end) but educate those playing through promoting discussion about the topic; building empathy and encouraging learning in a fun and supportive environment.

All three are based around the health and social care of people in the community and were born out the many changes happening around the world in social care due to ageing populations and the effect of the worldwide recession on social care resources.

Whose Shoes? is a tool that encourages debate and understanding around social care and personalisation (UK) and has been used extensively in challenging Dementia. Developed by Gill Phillips during the introduction of Personalisation in Adult Care, the toolkit has been developed now as an electronic version in partnership with TLAP and is used by many local authorities and a number of universities in the UK to help students and staff understand the service user journey as well as grasp the idea of co-production.

My Life, My budget was also developed around the same time as Whose Shoes? in response to the Personalisation of care in the UK. The board game helps service users understand the concept and how personalised budgets work and can affect their lives. The game is no longer available but if you’re lucky and in the UK, your local council may have a copy.

The Last Straw! is a fun and exciting teaching tool on the social determinants of health developed by University of Toronto’s Dr. Kate Rossiter and Dr. Kate Reeve as part of a health promotion class. The website says, “Feedback consistently demonstrates that players gain a better understanding of the social determinants of health and the interplay between forces at individual and community levels.” Shared by Catherine Laska, a Community Developer, Ottawa via LinkedIn.

Final thoughts

Finally, I wanted to share this YouTube video that highlights the benefits in playing games to both break the ice with community members as well as build trust and teamwork both of which are important when engaging the community.  The video come from Jackson Dionne a Program Manager at The Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC.

[Unfortunately, the link to the YouTube video was broken at the time of publication. Please check back at the original post later.]

I would like to thank all those who contributed to the discussion on games in Community Engagement on LinkedIn. I apologise for not being able to mention all the contributions, however, if you would like to follow the discussion and see some other examples, please visit http://linkd.in/1g1XKiD. There are also a number of other examples via my Innovative Community Engagement board on Pinterest, including the brilliant use of a ball pit by Soulpancake, Lego pieces by Intelligent Futures, and even some of my own concoctions, including the award winning Heyford Reserve community engagement project where we used a board game to help gather and develop ideas with local school kids for the renewal of a small reserve and playspace in the City of Salisbury, South Australia. See more on my innovative community engagement Pinterest board.

Any further examples or comments on Gamification in community engagement please leave in the box below… we love feedback but please, once again, do not use the Hunger Games as a model for community engagement.

Part Two: Online Community Engagement will be appearing on commsgodigital in February/March.

The original version of this post can be found at www.commsgodigital.com.au/2014/01/gamification-in-community-engagement-offline.