“Social Media and P2” – December 8, 2015

Social Media is "trending" in pretty much every area of life, so what kind of a role does it play in P2? Our December 2015 webinar looked at the emerging and evolving role of social media in public participation.

Robyn Austin, communications lead with Kittelson Associates and a member of the IAP2 USA Communications Committee, and independent consultant Karen Zypchyn of Canada led a discussion on the various tools available, their uses, and their advantages and limitations.

Webinar recording | Karen's slide presentation | Robyn's slide presentation

“Research and Practice” – November 13, 2015

As the field of public participation evolves, taking academic research and "lessons learned" and putting that knowledge into practice becomes increasingly important. In November we heard from two leaders on combining the two disciplines.

Stephanie Brooks, Public Outreach specialist at Michael Baker International and a member of the U.S. Transportation Research Board's Standing Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation (ADA60). The Committee works to enhance the understanding and practice of public involvement as an art and science in transportation policy. Stephanie shared how the Committee takes research and turns it into practical applications in the field of public transportation.

And Fiona Cavanagh, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Involvement – a partnership of the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta – which has been producing research work in a number of fields, particularly engagement at the civic level, and sees those theories put into practice.

The Centre for Public Involvement and the Subcommittee of the US Transportation Research Board have been working to marry research and practice.

Webinar Resources

• View the webinar recording
• Download Stephanie Brooks' PowerPoint
• View Fiona Cavanagh's presentation
• Get more information on collaborating with CPI
• Read CPI's report, Strengthening Engagement
• Review the Transportation Research Study
• Find out more about the Participedia Project

"Getting Engaged - Staying Engaged" – October 13, 2015

Should governments and other public institutions make an effort to "stay in touch" with citizens outside of a specific project that requires public engagement? The School of Government at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill has set up a blog, in which people from various sectors can write on their views and observations and elicit responses from other "ordinary" members of the public. How is the blog working and what is its potential? How are "citizens' academies" (also called "County University" or "City Hall High") improving the level and quality of P2?

View the webinar here. Review the Power Point.

Check out the blog "CELE" – Community Engagement Learning Exchange

Learn more about Citizens' Academies

"Meet the Authors – Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy" – August 25, 2015

Longtime IAP2 member Matt Leighninger, leader of public engagement and democratic governance at Public Agenda, and Tina Nabatchi, associate professor of administration and public affairs at Syracuse University, share some of their insights from their new book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy. The book looks at P2's past and present, and the desire to move away from what they call "conventional" P2 approaches like the "Three Minutes At The Microphone" dodge.

The webinar proved to be a lively, interactive session, with lots of questions from those taking part and some very thoughtful exchanges.

View the webinar here. Check out some of the free downloads that go with the book, and See the PowerPoint deck here.

“You the Jury” – July 14, 2015

Can you bring together a diverse group of ordinary citizens with a passing knowledge, at best, of a technical issue and come up with an informed decision?

That’s the concept of the “Citizen Jury”, and the idea is gaining traction, more and more. The Jefferson Center in the U.S. literally wrote the book on Citizens' Juries, and we were joined by Assistant Director Larry Pennings and Program Manager Andrew Rockway, along with Sherrill Johnson of the Centre for Public Involvement in Edmonton, Alberta.

This webinar discussed designing and implementing Citizens' Juries and innovative Citizens' Jury-style events to ensure meaningful citizen deliberation that leads to productive public outcomes (public policy or community action), rather than a quickly-shelved report.

View the webinar

The Jefferson Center's Citizens Jury Handbook

The Centre for Public Involvement's (CPI's) Internet Voting Project offers a video on the Citizens' Jury on Internet Voting in Edmonton, Alberta.

Sherrill Johnson mentions that if anyone has further questions on the Centre for Public Involvement and its work, they can contact Fiona Cavanagh by email at cpi@ualberta.ca.

Open Mic: Ask an Expert! – June 9, 2015

For the June webinar, we tried something different: opening up the floor to anyone to ask questions about the P2 practice and getting answers from a panel of experts in the field. Eight P2 professionals with widely divergent areas of expertise and a total of about 200 years of experience fielded the questions.

View the webinar. (Please note: after the initial welcome from Amelia Shaw, there is a gap of "dead air"; please fast-forward to 3:38 to find the actual start of the webinar.)

Click here to read additional questions and answers asked via the question box during and after the webinar.

Part of the discussion involved evaluating a P2 process. Please see the May webinar below for the recording and related material on that topic.

Interesting links to resourced mentioned in the webinar:

• Software Products Related to Stakeholder Engagement
• Guidelines for Effective Regulatory consultations
• Global Hive

Evaluating your P2 Process – May 12, 2015

As a P2 project unfolds, one big question remains: "Is it having its desired effect?" This month, we talk about ways of measuring that with Michael Quinn Patton and Charmagne Campbell-Patton of Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Dr Julia Abelson and Geoff Wilson, who led a pan-Canadian team to develop a tool for evaluating patient engagement in the health care system.

View the webinar recording.

Download the PPEET Slide Deck here (NB: Some pages may not be re-used or reproduced without author's permission).

Julia's and Geoff's project, the Patient and Public Engagement Evaluation Tool (PPEET), won the IAP2 Canada Core Values Award for Research Project of the Year in 2014. Read more about the project in their award application. 

Michael Quinn Patton's book, Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use is available online. You can read the first chapter free.

The Pattons will be presenting training in developmental evaluation in Ottawa, June 29 - July 3. For more information, click here.

Creating a Framework for Citizen Engagement – April 14, 2015

The City of Melbourne, Australia, has been breaking new ground in engaging its citizens. Join us as Desley Renton, Melbourne's Manager of Community Engagement, and Kate Henderson, the City's Community Engagement Officer share the achievements and lessons learned of the Citizen Engagement Framework project, which has received 2014 Core Values Awards as Project of the Year from IAP2 Australasia and the IAP2 Federation.

View the webinar.

Download the PowerPoint presentation

Contact Desley or Kate via Melbourne's Community Engagement Office: communityengagement@melbourne.vic.gov.au

Get more information and watch some videos about the process for Melbourne's 10-year financial plan.

Audience Response Systems in an Emotional Setting – March 10, 2015

When emotions run high, it's vital to "read" the audience and understand what their responses and reactions are. Dr David Campt -- "The Dialogue Guy" -- and Michael Lickers, Senior Advisor, Aboriginal Engagement and Community Development at Suncor Energy, share their experiences in using technology to get on-the-spot reactions from participants.

View the webinar.

Download Michael's PowerPoint presentation

David Campt's presentation can be found here (.key format) and here (.ppt format).

Core Values Award Winners, Part 3 – Cultural Transformations - February 10, 2015

Two award-winning projects, which managed to transform cultures, are featured.

Following a call by US President Barack Obama for a national dialogue on mental illness after the shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut in 2013, Dr Carolyn Lukensmeyer of the US National Institute for Civil Discourse led "Text. Talk. Act.", a project to get teenagers and young adults talking and doing something about it. The Creating Community Solutions Alliance was named Project of the Year by IAP2 USA.

In Calgary, a shift towards greater engagement by citizens in civic affairs spread into the city’s public service, and the Corporate Cultural Transformation Project was born. It engages workers right across the public service and has been strengthening a “teamwork” ethic, regardless of the particular job one may hold. The project took Organization of the Year honours with IAP2 Canada, and David Plouffe explains how the project worked, what impressed the judges and how it demonstrates IAP2’s Core Values of Public Participation.

View the webinar.

Click here to download Carolyn's PowerPoint.

Click here to download David's PowerPoint deck.

For more information on the Text. Talk. Act. platform, please contact Raquel Goodrich with the National Institute for Civil Discourse.

For information on the Groupworks -  Group Pattern Language Project David mentions, email contact@groupworksdeck.org.

To find out more about Calgary's Cultural Transformation Project and learn about other resources, contact David Plouffe directly.