When cities, towns, and counties face budget deficits, one question that local government officials might ask is, “How can we afford civic engagement?”  Experts from author Peter Block, to National Research Center™ president Tom Miller to former Redwood City Manager Ed Everett all agree—you can’t afford not to continue civic engagement and community building.

Here are five ways, and some additional resources, that can help keep and build momentum for civic engagement, even during the darkest of economic times.

1. Focus on the possibilities. According to Peter Block, you get a different type of “engagement” when you bring citizens together to focus on a problem than when you are there to focus on the possibilities. Block recently talked about the ideas in his book Community: the Structure of Belonging with Bob O’Neill, ICMA Executive Director. In the DVD, which will go out to ICMA members next month, Block talks about how a conversation focused on the possibilities leads to common ground more quickly than focusing immediately on problem solving. You can see a preview of the upcoming interview at icmatv.com or at icma.org.
2. Start small. Even if only three people come together around something about which they are passionate, says Ed Everett, it’s a great start. Everett called the ability to be civically engaged a “muscle that has atrophied.” In a recent ICMA Audio Conference he says local government leaders have to be the catalyst to get the muscle working again.
3. A shift in mindset. Block and Everett both talk about moving away from treating citizens like customers. If citizens think of themselves as having a stake in outcomes versus a consumer of services, they are more likely to become engaged in working in partnership with the local government team.
4. Ask them. A number of local governments have incorporated questions on budget cutbacks into their ongoing resident surveys, says Tom Miller. By using a survey tool, such as The National Citizen Survey™, local governments are able to incorporate the opinions of a representative sample of citizens into the process of making tough budget decisions. 
5. Walk in their shoes. Ask yourself and your team how you would like to be engaged if you put your self in your residents’ shoes. Just like shoes, there is no one size fits all for communities. And however you decide to move forward, don’t turn it into an opportunity to “present” everything that the local government has done for you. Your role is to be a catalyst and mostly to listen.

For additional resources on civic engagement, including the ICMA Management Perspective Community Matters, visit the ICMA Resource Center.