Register for December’s Tech Tuesday event on MetroQuest

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

I’m excited to tell you about this month’s Tech Tuesday event, which will be hosted by Dave Biggs, Co-Founder of MetroQuest, on Tuesday, December 17th, from 1-2pm Eastern (10-11am Pacific).

MetroQuest is a new organizational member of NCDD, so some of you may not yet be aware of their work. Dave was a keynote speaker at the recent IAP2-USA conference in Salt Lake, and MetroQuest public involvement software is recommended as a best practice by the APA, TRB, FWHA and other agencies.

Dave will be talking to us about what he has learned about best practices for online engagement, and will give us a demonstration of the MetroQuest software by walking us through several recent case studies. Register today to reserve your spot on this FREE Tech Tuesday webinar!

MetroQuest software enables the public to learn about your project and provide meaningful feedback using a variety of fun and visual screens. It’s easy to mix and match screens to accomplish the engagement goals for each phase of the project from identifying and ranking priorities, to rating scenarios or strategies, to adding comments on maps and much more. To ensure the broadest participation, MetroQuest can be accessed on the web or mobile devises, at touchscreen kiosks and in engaging town-hall style workshops.

MetroQuest is:

the most mature community outreach software available with over 16 years of award-winning projects and continuous refinement;
used successfully by leading consulting and public involvement firms including HNTB, Jacobs, URS, ICF, AECOM, Kimley-Horn, Kittelson, Michael Baker, Golder, CH2M Hill, WRT, Nelson Nygaard, Design Workshop, Consensus Inc, MIG, and many more;
used by hundreds of agencies in the largest urban areas (Atlanta, Chicago, LA, San Fran, Denver, DC) to the smallest towns and villages.

Theresa Gunn, Past President of IAP2-USA has said “MetroQuest is the first online tool I’ve seen that incorporates all of the different elements of a public engagement process into one program and does it well.”

If you’d like to join us on the 17th, sign up today at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6501680890695446017.

Tech Tuesday is a new initiative from NCDD focused on online technology. Many in our field are curious about how they can use online tools to support their engagement work, and many tool creators are excited to talk to this community about their innovations. These one-hour events, designed and run by the tool creators themselves, are meant to help practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them.

Fun & Games with CommunityMatters

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

Our friends and partners at CommunityMatters have been having a lot of fun recently, and we wanted to share a bit about it so that NCDD members aren’t missing out! CM recently hosted a conference call on Creating Fun Places, and you can find the notes for the call here and/or listen to the audio of the call here. We also encourage you to check out their follow-up blog post about lessons from the call below or find the original on the CM blog by clicking here.

5 Tips for Creating Playful Places in Your Town

Mike Lanza of Playborhood and Brian Corrigan of Oh Heck Yeah take play pretty seriously. Mike turned his front yard into a neighborhood gathering place focused on play, and Brian’s organizing a large-scale street arcade in downtown Denver. Mike and Brian both love having fun, but they also know that play is beneficial for their communities.

Mike’s house is an epicenter for play, attracting kids and adults alike with fun fountains, sandboxes and even an in-ground trampoline. He’ll tell you that after creating this neighborhood gathering spot, people on his block are more physically active, more social and they have more fun. These benefits are characteristic of third places – spaces outside of work or home where people gather.

For Brian, Oh Heck Yeah’s focus on turning downtown Denver into an immersive street arcade is about building trust among strangers, generating new ideas and inspiring partnerships that can make the city an even better place to live, work and (of course) play.

On our last CommunityMatters conference call, Mike and Brian shared their ideas for creating more playful places. If you want to reap the benefits of play in your own community, here are five tips for getting started:

1. Think Like an Inventor

Have a vision for transforming a dull space in your community into a vibrant and playful place? Go ahead, dream big! But, when it comes to making things happen, think like an inventor and start with a prototype. The iterative approach of prototyping means you can experiment with an idea to refine the concept and work out the kinks.

Take Brian’s advice and start with the 1.0 version of an idea. What does your grand idea look like when it is stripped down to its simplest, easiest and least expensive form? As you grow toward the 10.0 version, you’ll gain momentum by building a cadre of supporters, ensuring your biggest version of your big idea is successful.

If you’re interested in learning more about prototyping, don’t miss our December call on A Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper Approach to Community Action. Register now!

2. Legalize Fun

It’s easy to talk about creating great places, but altering public spaces around town means taking risks. If your local laws hinder improvised solutions to traffic problems, start advocating for a local city repair ordinance.

Inspired by the success of Share it Square, a neighborhood project to make a traffic intersections more interesting, safe and playful, the City of Portland created an ordinance allowing for locally-led improvement projects. As long as adjacent property owners approve and safety is maintained, citizens can receive permits for intersection improvements. Use Portland’s ordinance as the foundation for legalizing fun in your town.

3. Create a Draw

Build places where people want to stay.

Public spaces rely on one essential element for success – the presence of people. If you want people to engage in a playful space, make it visible. Mike suggests starting with a bench – just a place to sit. Add a solar-powered tea or coffee stand as an attractor. Or, take a playful approach by installing a ball pit or swing set. Invite people to come to the space at a particular time, and give them a reason to be there.

Find more ideas for attracting people by listening to our call on Third Places.

4. Engage Creative Minds

Capitalize on the ideas and talents of the creative sector, the artists, designers and actors in town. How can you enliven a public space with musicians or dancers?

Through Oh Heck Yeah, Brian is partnering with organizations like the Colorado Symphony and the Denver Art Museum to bring his project to life. In Mike’s front yard, a local artist created a mural of the neighborhood to help kids explore and understand their environment.

There are endless ways to engage creative minds in placemaking projects, especially when you’re focused on play. But, if you want something that resonates with your community, seek art that is culturally meaningful, that incorporates the skills of local people and showcases the distinct assets of your city or town.

5. Try Something!

Get outside and try something. If you’re starved for ideas, start with our list of 75 Seriously Fun Ways to Make Your Town More Playful. Or, check out our follow up: 25 (More) Ways to Make Your Town More Playful. And, don’t miss the playful ideas from Mike, Brian and our fabulous callers. You can find their thoughts by reading our call notes or listening to the call recording here.

You can find the original blog post from CommunityMatters at www.communitymatters.org/blog/five-tips-creating-playful-places-your-town.

Peter Levine on Making Public Participation Legal

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

This post is shared from the blog of supporting NCDD member and professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Boston, Dr. Peter Levine. Peter shares a humorous take on the not-so-funny state of public meetings, and highlights the NCDD-supported Making Participation Legal report. For more info about this important intitiative and how it was created, check out our write up on its release.

Making Public Participation Legal

This is pretty much how “public participation” looks when it takes the form of a meeting with officials at the head of the table defending their policies, and their fellow citizens lining up to speak:

The “Parks and Recreaton” satire hits so close to home because public forums usually use awful formats and methods. As Matt Leighninger writes:

The vast majority of public meetings are run according to a formula that hasn’t changed in decades: officials and other experts present, and citizens are given three-minute increments to either ask questions or make comments. There is very little interaction or deliberation. Turnout at most public meetings is very low – local officials often refer to the handful of people who typically show up as the “usual suspects.” But if the community has been gripped by a controversy, turnout is often high, and the three-minute commentaries can last long into the night. On most issues, the public is either angry or absent; either way, very little is accomplished (Making Public Participation Legal, p. 3).

One reason is the laws that allow or require public participation: they are poorly structured. The Working Group on Legal Frameworks for Public Participation has developed frameworks for better state and local laws. Their model legislation and other materials are presented in a new report, Making Public Participation Legal, available from the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC).

You can find Peter’s original post here: http://peterlevine.ws/?p=12660.

Adding Art to Public Meetings

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

We hope you’ll take a moment to read this inspiring article about the power of art in public meetings - and in this case, the art of words – from our friends at AmericaSpeaks. You can read it below or find the original post on their blog by clicking here.

AmericaSpeaks_Logo

The Power of Spoken Word

We have facilitated hundreds of public meetings over the past 18 years. All are memorable in their own right, but some have special moments that are unforgettable.

At our Creating Community Solutions DC meeting on Saturday, October 12th, we facilitated a day-long meeting for 400 participants on mental health in the District. We had a fantastic turnout, literally standing room only, and particularly of youth aged 15-24, with more than 120 participating.

In every meeting, we try to feature local talent of one type or another – whether it be a band that plays prior to the beginning of a meeting or an exercise leader who leads an energetic stretch break for participants 4 or 5 hours into the meeting.

At Creating Community Solutions, we had the honor of including two very talented, precocious teenage spoken word artists, both from the DC Youth Slam Team.

Both artists – Amina Iro and Thomas “Vocab” Hill – have been performing for the past year, and have competed in national contests like the 2013 Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival.

Amina performed first, a powerful poem about the depression her mother has battled and the impact it has on her mom, herself, and her family. The crowd gave her an extended standing ovation.

Later in the morning Vocab performed a moving piece about his uncle, a veteran, who suffers PTSD after several tours in Iraq. He too brought down the house.

Whereas the rest of the day focused on conveying critical data and information about mental health and illness and featured in-depth and sometimes difficult conversations about what challenges youth face and how do we overcome these challenges, these artistic moments served to inspire, energize, and focus the audience on the critical nature of the convening.

Art can make an enormous difference in so many parts of our lives. And, even in unlikely settings like a public meeting on a public policy concern.

Thank you Amina and Thomas!

To read more about Creating Community Solutions DC, CLICK HERE.

New Open Data Policy Passes in Oakland, CA

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

This interesting piece of news is cross-posted from the Gov 2.0 Watch blog run by the Davenport Institute (an NCDD organizational member). The open data movement continues to grow with this new policy in Oakland, CA created with public participation. The original post is here.

Oakland Local and the Personal Democracy Forum reported last week on the Oakland City Council’s unanimous passage of legislation adopting an Open Data Policy last Tuesday. The Local reports:

The Open Data Policy itself was drafted in a unique, open, and collaborative manner. Over the summer, [councilmember] Schaaf reached out to the Urban Strategies Council, an organization working to eliminate poverty through education, opportunity, safety, and justice. Urban Strategies organized a public roundtable and an online Google Hangout, and invited experts and interested parties from around the country to join and participate in developing the Open Data Policy.

Miranda Neubauer, writing in Techpresident at the Personal Democracy Forum, provides further details on the legislation and how it builds on ongoing efforts to make Oakland city data available for the benefit of both policy analysts and the public.

You can read more from the Local here and more from Techpresident here.

“Are We There Yet?” Residents of Central Arkansas use online game to create roadmap for the future

Posted on November 22, 2013 by EngagingCities

This article first appeared on EngagingCities but we’d like to share it here with the NCDD community.

How do you get citizens to give feedback about their ideas for the community, while also educating them on the inherent repercussions of their preferences? How do you involve the public in your 30-year plan, while instilling an appreciation for how every decision affects the overall timeline and outcome?

You get them to play a game.

Playing a game – planning a future

The residents of Central Arkansas have been helping to shape their region’s future through a FlipSides game – an online interactive activity – that allows them to give feedback on topics such as transportation infrastructure, emerging trends, walkability, and funding decisions. Responsive infographics help players envision the effects their ideas would have on the completion timeline for each topic. Appropriately named “Are we there yet?”, this playful tool has provided valuable feedback to the decision-makers for the region’s planning effort, Imagine Central Arkansas.

Since it’s mid-June launch, hundreds of Arkansas residents have played “Are we there yet?”, both online and at events throughout the area. People were encouraged to access the game to let their voice be heard while learning more about the factors that influence the final plan. As an extra incentive, each player was registered in an iPad mini giveaway. The iPad was won by a Searcy resident, but the whole community will benefit from increased understanding of the give-and-take type of decision-making that is native to complex projects.

Real-time results

One of the most valuable features of the game is the immediate visual feedback players receive as they answer questions and define priorities. Not only do citizens get to choose how to achieve the regional vision, they get to experience in real-time the trade-offs that come with any decision or development.

As you proceed through the steps of the game, you move a slider or checkbox to indicate your opinion about a specific topic – for example, your level of support for policies that accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. If you indicate strong support, the timelines on the right will immediately show that based on your response, the completion of “Local Transit Goals” would be accomplished by the year 2046. If you had not supported the pedestrian policies, but instead supported investing in current transportation systems before creating new ones, the “Local Transit Goals” would not be accomplished until 2050. Each step of the game contains multiple options and layers of effects, all depending on one another, that demonstrate the complicated nature of a regional plan.

Distinguishing it from other popular engagement methods, the game’s focus goes beyond mere opinion-gathering. It requires players to think through the “flip sides” of each decision and to realize that every action will have impact on all other parts of the project. It puts the citizen briefly in the driver’s seat, making the decisions that planners must deal with every day. In short, “Are we there yet?” is more about HOW we get there than WHERE we are trying to go.

The next 30 years

Imagine Central Arkansas has provided “Are We There Yet?” as one of the last phases in their outreach strategy before drafting the final plan for the region. This means the choices and information in the game are more refined than during previous engagement efforts. Prior campaigns have included “Treasured Places”, where residents were encouraged to photograph, map, and digitally explore their favorite local places; and “Choose Your Future”, another digital activity that allowed people to prioritize about everything in their future, from parks to mobility to economy and beyond. In this latest outreach, residents are finally asked to try to balance their opinions with realities and challenges.

“Are we there yet?” is powered by FlipSides, an online platform that allows decision-makers to engage the public about specific trade-offs inherent to planning projects. While Imagine Central Arkansas has used the platform to focus on goals and timelines, FlipSides can be tailored to fit any project and provides planners with valuable feedback about public opinion and priorities.

As urban planners look for more relevant ways to engage their audience, many are turning to online tools, and games in particular. Arkansas has joined other cities in the experiment of playful public outreach, and the results have been positive. Perhaps the greatest benefit will be to the citizens who, in taking a moment to stop and think about the future of their community, will leave with a greater appreciation for the complexities of public planning.

Collaborate in IAP2′s Write-A-Thon on Friday

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

Do you have some free time this Friday, November 22nd? If you do, we hope you consider helping out our partners at IAP2 USA (an NCDD organizational member) with their “write-a-thon” event, a collaborative work day to improve its website and tidy up after IAP2 USA’s great 2013 conference. Whether you have 15 minutes or the whole afternoon, there’s something you can do to help!

You can sign up to help and find out more about the day on this Google Doc. Here’s how it will work:

The Communications Team will do some basic prep work, such as setting up an environment for collaborative writing, listing the areas that need work and providing the necessary instructions.

The day of the write-a-thon, November 22, we’ll start with a kick-off conference call in the morning. We’ll also schedule brief check-ins throughout the day (like every other hour or so) to make it easy for people who join late catch up quickly. These calls would also help us coordinate tasks among our distributed team and resolve any critical questions or issues.

While the main event will take place over the course of just one day, we will probably have everything ready a couple days prior so volunteers can get a head start if they want. And we’d probably leave it open for contributions over the weekend.

Updating the navigation structure of our website and swapping out content won’t actually take that long. Who knows, the new and improved website might launch before Thanksgiving.

A write-a-thon is a participatory method that has application for public participation work. This is a chance for you to experience this innovative format hands-on while also helping IAP2 USA. Win/win!

The whole day will kick off with a conference call briefing at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific (Dial-in info: 1-213-342-3000 / 268555#). This is what you can expect:

We’ll be using Google Docs as our collaboration environment. The main document is now up and running and has more details, incl. dial-in information for our kick-off call and several other check-ins throughout the day and a first list of content areas we plan to tackle.

If you’d like to get involved, here’s what you do:

Head to the Google Doc and add your name to the list of participants.

Join us for our 10-minute kick-off call at 9am Pacific (12pm Eastern) on Friday or for any of the other check-ins

If you have further questions, just get in touch (leave a comment below, contact the office or complete our volunteer sign-up form to join the communications team)

Remember, every small contribution is welcome! Whether you have 20 minutes to spare in between meetings, an hour at the airport or an entire afternoon — there will be plenty of opportunities to help out.

You can find more info about the event and how you can help below, or you can visit their blog to see the full original post or the final update. Thanks in advance to everyone who chips into this great collaborative process!

Learning from NYC’s Engagement

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

In the last month, Dr. Will Friedman of Public Agenda, an NCDD organizational member, has written two great pieces sharing his reflections on public problem-solving in his native New York City that were too good not to share wanted to share.

In his first piece on civic inclusion, Will shared a number of inspiring examples of ways that New Yorkers from traditionally marginalized groups and backgrounds have engaged in addressing the issues in their communities. And his second piece on post-Hurricane Sandy engagement in NYC, he shares reflections on the need for public, collaborative problem solving as the city grapples with the changes it needs to make to become more resilient after such disasters, and it included some choice nuggets of insight, not only for New Yorkers, but for all of us working in public engagement.

On grappling with the challenges posed to communities by major climate events, he writes:

The challenges we face are unprecedented and involve not only rebuilding and renewing, but adapting and reinventing. We have options to choose from, including constructing a flood barrier, changing building codes, or limiting waterfront development.

These are only a few of our options, and none of them are easy. Choosing the fairest and most effective approach will take creativity and collaboration, and a high-functioning democratic process that builds authentic public will and support for bold action…

The task will require more than just smart designers, power brokers and public officials influencing and making calls on policy. A challenge at this level will take thousands of small efforts on the parts of individuals and communities. It will take a number of big ideas, things that people can’t do by themselves, and things that the government can’t do without the support of the citizenry. Above all, it will require real collaboration, not only among national, state and local authorities, but also among leaders and citizens.

Importantly, he notes that what will not work is if “business-as-usual” continues, but also acknowledges that we also aren’t ready to engage publics at the scale and depth that is needed:

The age of backroom powerbrokers making the big decisions for the little people is over. At the same time, the mechanisms for engaging citizens in productive consideration of, and participation in, solutions are not in place.

The solutions we need do, in fact, lie in building the “high-functioning” democratic processes that Will points to. And building such process, ones that are suited to the urgent but complex decisions facing our society, is a challenge that fields like ours must be taking on.

But how do we get there? Will has some suggestions:

We do, though, know some of the principles and practices that can make a real difference in helping leaders and citizens collaborate to overcome arguments and move toward sustainable solutions. These include:

Knowing when to include the public. The public feels more strongly about having a voice in some decisions more than others. Taking the time to understand which is which saves time and energy.

Presenting the practical choices. Residents need to understand the realistic choices the city faces in ways they can understand and relate to. In particular, they need to understand the practical pros, cons and tradeoffs of different solutions. It’s not enough to explain what these options are to citizens, they need to know what they mean for their own lives and for the life of their city. In practical terms that all residents can understand, what are the benefits, downsides, costs and unknowns?

Providing the time and space for stable judgment. People need opportunities to not only consider the choices, but to talk to people about them, to hear others talking about them, and to let them sink in and percolate with their values, concerns and interests. Well-designed community dialogues, online discussion groups and thoughtful television and radio discussions are some of the ways in which raw public opinion becomes more stable and responsible.

We can’t afford for the current fruitful conversations to bog down in wishful thinking or petty bickering. To move forward, we must face our choices, weigh their tradeoffs, and work together to shape a vision for New York’s future.

If we succeed, we’ll not only do great things for a great city, we can also become an example of working through disagreements to make progress on a tough public problem together.

He may be right that the lessons that come from New York City’s attempts to work through its public problems can be instructive for the rest of the country, and indeed, the world. Certainly, the Big Apple has its own quirks and nuances, but if residents and communities in a city as large and diverse as NYC can build effective, equitable, and creative processes that genuinely engage the public in solving shared problems, it bodes well for the rest of us and the futures of our communities.

New York has enormous challenges ahead of it. But with collaboration-minded leaders like Will and many other NCDDers hard at work, it is absolutely possible that the city’s experiments in big, new forms of deliberation and engagement will provide a model that folks in our field can build on and adapt successfully to our own local realities.

We will be pulling for them.

You can read Will’s full articles at PublicAgenda.org. Find his civic inclusion piece here, and his post-Sandy piece here.

First Youth Participatory Budgeting Process in the US

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

The Participatory Budgeting Project, an NCDD organizational member, recently shared a press release announcing an exciting new initiative they are part of in Boston. You can read the statement below, or find the original post on the PBP blog by clicking here. It also mentions that PBP is seeking a youth organizer for this project, so if you know people who can be positive allies to the young people of this initiative, please share the job announcement with them.

For me, it is crucial for our society that youth have chances to engage in real, consequential democratic processes early and often. Like Takoma Park, MD’s recent decision to decrease the voting age to 16, this initiative represents a step toward more meaningful youth engagement in our government. I’m encouraged.

Boston’s Youth to Decide How to Allocate $1 Million of City’s FY14 Budget

City Announces Partnership with The Participatory Budgeting Project, Search for Youth Organizer Underway

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced the City of Boston is partnering with non-profit organization The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) on the pilot year of the City’s youth participatory budgeting process. For the first time, the City of Boston has set aside $1 million for youth to allocate through a year-long budgeting process. Through participatory budgeting, young Bostonians will identify projects to improve their communities, vet those projects, consider trade-offs, and vote on how to spend the $1 million. The process will be a collaboration between PBP, the Mayor’s Youth Council and Boston Centers for Youth and Families.

“Our most important collection of talent lies in our young people,” Mayor Menino said. “It is so important to have our young people engaged in government, and to make sure their voices are heard when it comes to improving their neighborhoods. This process puts the power in their hands, and will show them what kind of impact they can make on our city.”

A search is underway for a youth organizer who will be responsible for engaging young Bostonians in the process and working closely with both PBP and City of Boston staff. Those interested in learning more about the Youth Organizer position should visit: www.idealist.org/view/job/DgD2ZBfCFz5P/.

Young residents, community-based organizations and youth advocates will come together in a Steering Committee to begin to discuss the design and execution of the process. The Mayor’s Youth Council has invited high school teens and youth advocates from across the city to an info session on December 10 at 5:45 p.m. in City Hall. Those who would like to RSVP for the session should email: YouthCouncil@boston.gov.

“Participatory budgeting is a real school of democracy. Young people across Boston will learn democracy by doing – and decide how to spend $1 million on concrete improvements to their communities. I’m excited to work with the City and other community partners to build this groundbreaking new model for youth engagement and empowerment,” said Josh Lerner, Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project.

There is already a buzz in Boston about the “1 Million Dollar Question.” Mayor’s Youth Council representatives and allies from neighborhoods across the city have begun asking their peers how $1 million could be spent to make Boston an even better city for youth. “We are going to get a chance to identify items that are important to us, to have our voices heard, and to see projects that will benefit the city for a long time to come,” said Kayla Knight, a Roxbury Representative on the Mayor’s Youth Council.

In April, Mayor Menino presented his $2.6 billion Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 and five year $1.8 billion Capital Plan, including $196 million in new FY 2014 project authorizations. The FY 2014 budget includes initiatives that keep Boston at the forefront of reinvention: changes at Boston Public Schools to increase access to quality, new housing to meet the needs of young professionals and middle-class families, and online learning for Boston’s neighborhoods. At the core of the budget is a desire to continue to build neighborhoods, provide residents an unparalleled quality of life, and support neighbors as they help one another.

Participatory budgeting originated in Brazil in 1989 and has been successful in U.S. cities including New York, Vallejo (CA), and Chicago. There are now more than 1,500 participatory budgets around the world, most at the city level. Participatory budgeting has also been used for counties, states, housing authorities, schools and school systems, universities, coalitions, and other public agencies. For more information on participatory budgeting, visit: www.participatorybudgeting.org.

More Responses to the launch of PB Boston:

“I am thrilled that the City of Boston has embraced a “PB” process for its youth. What better way to teach young people the value and importance of civic engagement than to give them real power over real money. Kudos to Boston for making PB a part of its budgetary process and putting its young people front and center in its implementation.” — Chicago Alderman Joe Moore, who launched the first participatory budgeting process in the US in 2009.

“It is great to have the City of Boston joining the Participatory Budgeting family. At its best, government is what we do together to strengthen our communities. We have seen young people in New York take this charge and embrace their citizenship through Participatory Budgeting.” — New York City Council Member Brad Lander, who worked with colleagues in Council to launch PB in NYC in 2011.

“Bringing participatory budgeting to Boston is in line with our city’s progressive history as hub for democratic innovation. It’s a new form of civic engagement that Mayor Menino has rightfully placed in the hands of our city’s young people to pilot. We look forward to working with Mayor-Elect Walsh to incorporate this effort into his broader vision for a more inclusive and engaged city.” — Aaron Tanaka, director of the Center for Economic Democracy and former executive director of the Boston Workers Alliance

“As governments everywhere devise new innovations to re-engage citizens, Boston’s Youth Participatory Budgeting initiative is an exciting innovation in participation and civic education that focuses on a set of people usually left out politics and government: young people. It will be exciting to see the proposals and projects that they develop over the coming year.” — Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Birmingham Joins Mental Health Conversation with NIFI

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

In addition today’s exciting news about the Text, Talk, Act project, we are pleased to share more good news about the Creating Community Solutions effort. This post comes from our partners at the National Issues Forums Institute, sharing the recent announcement that they will be helping the city of Birmingham, AL engage its public in mental health issues. Read more below, or find the original post here.

On November 1, 2013, Birmingham City Mayor William Bell hosted a press conference where he announced the launch of a public forum series on the topic of mental health and mental illness. Others who spoke at the press conference included Bill Muse, president of the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI); Stephanie McCladdie, regional administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA); and other Birmingham area mental health officials.

The following is excerpted from Alabama’s 13 WVTM-TV website posting about the press conference:

“Birmingham is one of ten cities around the country to answer President Obama’s call for a national conversation about mental health with a broad based dialogue to discuss how mental health issues affect our communities and to discuss topics related to the mental health of our young people,” according to a news release from the city. “These discussions will lead to action plans designed to improve mental health programs and services for our families, schools and communities. The discussions, entitled Mental Health: What Are The Options?, will take place in the form of ten forums in Birmingham. Data collected from the forums will be provided to SAMSHA and aid in the further formation of programming in the Birmingham area.”

This Birmingham, Alabama citywide forums project is part of a large, nationwide conversation project about mental health and mental illness called Creating Community Solutions that was launched with a White House press conference in June, 2013.

More information about the nationwide project, how to join in the national conversation, and free resources and materials to use in local communities for conversations about mental health and mental illness, can be found at the project website at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org.

The original NIFI post plus other links can be found here: www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=25207&catID=23664.

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