Citizen Roles for Effective Community Governance

Transcription

1 Citizen Roles for Effective Community Governance January 2007 By Lyle Wray Paul Epstein (212) :

2 Many Roles for Citizens Citizens play many roles in communities, which must be recognized and tapped to most effectively engage them in community governance and improvement. Major roles citizen play include: Stakeholder Advocate Issue Framer Evaluator Collaborator 2

3 Citizen Roles Stakeholder: Someone who: Is a service customer, Is an owner (shareholder) of the government or civic realm, or Is an interested party concerning community conditions, existing or proposed projects or policies, or community service problems. Advocate: Someone who: Tries to protect or advance specific interests, or Encourages the community to act. Issue framer: Someone who: Helps develop a long-term vision, goals, or strategic plan, Helps determine what issues get on the community agenda, and set priorities for allocating resources or acting on issues, or Defines problems from a citizen s perspective. Identifies possible solutions to community problems. 3

4 Citizen Roles Evaluator: Someone who: Assesses community conditions or service quality, Interprets data on performance or conditions, or Evaluates alternative solutions to community problems. Collaborator: Someone who: Helps forge compromise or build consensus among different interests to solve problems, Works in partnership with others to implement community improvements, or Identifies and helps leverage assets (e.g., other citizens, small businesses, community organizations, community meeting places) the government may not consider. 4

5 Why Robust Citizen Engagement? Effectiveness Legitimacy Sustainability Ownership of issues Mobilize resources and support Bring citizens energy to community improvement 5

6 Why Citizens in Multiple Roles? Providing a full range of roles: Helps more people find their comfort zone of what they are willing and able to do, despite their different interests, knowledge, skills, constraints. Keeps citizens involved longer: e.g., from advocacy to getting things done. Helps organizations identify more ways to support citizens as effective community partners. As a result, more people contribute more time and energy to community improvement. 6

7 Numerous Examples of All Roles Are in Results That Matter (Jossey-Bass 2006)* Results That Matter provides: In chapter 2, full descriptions of all roles with detailed examples, and a Quick Guide for supporting citizens in each role (see end of presentation). In chapters 4-8, examples of citizens playing multiple roles in the context of advanced community governance practices. Throughout the book, citizens who play the roles in communities across the U.S. describe their experiences. This presentation provides additional perspectives and summary examples of citizen roles, with references to practices and resources for your toolkit to support these roles. *Epstein, Paul, Paul Coates, & Lyle Wray, with David Swain. Results That Matter. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006). 7

8 Citizen as Stakeholder (Customer) Private sector learning: sustained and complex process to listen to and meet or exceed customer expectations In person and online: set standards and evaluate service quality and satisfaction 8

9 Citizen as Stakeholder: Service First (UK) 9

10 Citizen as Stakeholder (Owner) As A Matter of Fact I Do Own the Road bumper sticker Performance Reporting to citizens: Early examples: Mayor s Management Report, New York, NY, Measuring Up, Province of Alberta, Canada Major GASB (U.S.) and CCAF-FCVI (Canada) research on reporting performance measurement information to citizens has encouraged many other U.S. and Canadian governments to issue public reports on performance. 10

11 Citizen as Stakeholder: Measuring Up (Canada) 11

12 Citizen as Stakeholder (Interested Party) Everyone s a stakeholder in the community s quality of life Some have a more direct stake than others in, e.g.: Specific issues, problems, or services New public or private buildings or facilities Proposed land use changes or development Important to keep people aware of their interests, especially when change is proposed, and to give them opportunities for influence. 12

13 Citizen as Stakeholder: Toolkit (Customer) Focused survey research on service user satisfaction with performance Performance service standards with consequences Point of service evaluation Focus groups on value points in service performance 13

14 Citizen as Stakeholder: Toolkit (Owner) Carefully design communication to citizens to help them be responsible stewards of public spending Provide regular performance accountability reports Focus on citizen value points in reports Report different levels of detail, using several media, so more citizens find information that interests them, e.g., Summaries in printed reports, press, meetings. Details on web, with drill down by service, issue, demographic groups, geographic districts. 14

15 Citizen as Stakeholder: Toolkit (Owner) To Help Governments Prepare Performance Reports for Citizens To Help Citizens Understand and Use Public Performance Reports 15

16 Citizen as Stakeholder: Toolkit (Interested Party) Mechanisms to keep community members informed of their interests and give them a voice in issues or changes that may affect them, e.g.: Outreach, especially to underrepresented groups and all potentially affected interests Community boards, neighborhood councils, etc., with formal advisory roles* Community forums on proposed major developments or service changes* *Can also help citizens play other roles 16

17 Citizen as Advocate People with common interests: Find each other to strengthen their advocacy Find assistance they need (e.g., technical expert, legal, political) to give legitimacy to what they want Learn how things work and learn from each other Bottom Line: People find their leverage 17

18 Citizen as Advocate: Community organizing Toolkit Neighborhood associations, homeowners associations, business associations, etc. Pro bono legal or technical assistance for low income communities (can be from universities: e.g., community internships, class projects) Citizen academies, community leadership institutes, etc.*, and their alumni associations *Can also develop citizens for other roles 18

19 Citizen as Issue Framer Building a state or community vision: Build common vision, build legitimacy, energize participation and resources. State examples: Oregon Benchmarks, Minnesota Milestones Community visioning or strategic planning processes in many cities and counties Basis for tracking progress toward desired outcomes. Determining issues or priorities for the near-term agenda (e.g., annual budget, civic issue groups). Defining community problems and solving them. 19

20 Citizen as Issue Framer: Minnesota Milestones 20

21 Citizen as Issue Framer: Brisbane Australia 21

22 Citizen as Issue Framer: Toolkit Best practices in community strategic planning: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Rural Communities: The Community Visioning and Strategic Planning Handbook. National Civic League: Jacksonville Community Council Citizen Issue Study Process: Future Search interactive planning process: AmericaSpeaks 21 st Century Town Meeting for largescale engagement of citizens on issues, planning, priority setting: 22

23 Citizen as Evaluator Measure and publicly report on community quality of life or results of quality assessment of public services, e.g.: Bangalore, India, municipal service report Jacksonville Community Council annual Quality of Life Progress Reports Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance s Vital Signs and web-mapping to view comparative neighborhood conditions Citizens collect data on conditions or service results that interest them: Fund for the City of New York ComNET : Citizens use PDAs to capture data on the quality of the urban environment Urban Institute: Citizen trained observers in many countries Data Intermediaries help citizens amass and use publicly available data, e.g., National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) in 26 cities across the U.S. 23

24 Citizen as Evaluator: Bangalore, India 24

25 Citizen as Evaluator: ComNET 25

26 Citizen as Evaluator: JCCI 26

27 Citizen as Evaluator: BNIA 27

28 Citizen as Evaluator: NNIP 28

29 Citizen as Evaluator: Toolkit Manual by the Urban Institute (Harry Hatry and others) on measuring effectiveness of nine common local public services: How Effective Are Your Community Services? Includes a chapter on trained observer ratings. JCCI articles and guidebook on conducting citizen-driven Quality of Life assessment, including guidelines for selecting indicators: Community Indicators Consortium network of indicators practitioners and researchers: 29

30 Citizen as Collaborator Citizens help forge compromise and consensus on solutions, then partner in implementing improvement. Citizens as partners in crime reduction, literacy and school success, clean streets, to homeland security. Focus on vision and partners who can help bring about the vision. Citizens identify and leverage assets (e.g., other citizens, small businesses, community organizations, community meeting places) the government may not consider. Examples: Recycling movement Saint Louis Park, Minnesota: building youth assets. 30

31 Citizen as Collaborator: Toolkit Strategic community partnerships -- partner or coalition with like minded groups based on an assessment Sustain vehicles for connecting citizens to community outcomes -- continuity Inform citizens on results and repeatedly offer engagement invitations in credible and effective ways Children First, a call to individuals, families and organizations to give kids the care and support they need: Asset-based community improvement approach in Building Communities from the Inside Out by John Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Northwestern University 31

32 Quick Guide to Supporting Citizens in Five Major Roles of Citizen Engagement Adapted from Chapter 2 of Results That Matter (Jossey-Bass, 2006) Major Roles Citizens as Stakeholders (Interested Parties) Citizens as Advocates Citizens as Issue Framers Foundation builders (e.g., vision, strategic goals) Agenda setters (issues, budgets) Problem definers Solution identifiers Citizens as Evaluators Citizens as Collaborators Compromisers Co-producers Asset leveragers How You Can Support Or Strengthen The Role Help citizens organize and associate with each other close to home. Ensure citizens have an opportunity to influence things they care about as stakeholders. Help citizens get technical and political help and find the leverage they need. Help citizens learn the way things work in the community, and help them learn from each other to be effective advocates. Foster deliberative processes in which people listen to each other and make hard choices. Ensure citizens are engaged early to set agendas, define problems, and identify solutions. Encourage community centered, boundary crossing problem solving. Provide support to make citizens assessments rigorous, credible, and useful. Provide citizens periodic performance data on issues and services of concern to them, and help them use the data (also helps stakeholder-owner). Help citizens voice their opposition to get attention needed for compromise that respects their interest. Help citizens recognize different stakeholder interests and to think beyond opposition to forge effective compromises needed to solve problems. Organize opportunities for citizens to be co-producers in their community. Identify sparkplugs to energize community co-production projects, and support them in organizing the community. Help citizens identify and leverage community assets (including themselves) to make limited investments go further and get big things done.