The Right and Smart Thing To Do!

Local governments can be in the forefront of advancing citizen engagement.  To do so, they must understand what engagement is, and identify the ways to expand and connect their engagement activities, and share ownership of those activities with citizens. Citizen engagement is the right thing to do because it promotes democracy and community building.  It is also a smart thing to do to expand support from citizens and get buy in from achieving goals that government cannot achieve on its own. Read the complete Connected Communities white paper and the executive summary.

The Enhanced Research Partnership of Arizona State University, The Alliance for Innovation and ICMA have developed a free civic engagement tool for local governments to understand their readiness and capacity for engagement.  It is also helpful in identifying key principles of an effective engagement program.

Take advantage of this free tool to examine your organization and its efforts in civic engagement and to identify a plan to enhance your engagement strategy. Download the self-assessment tool for free for civic engagement practices.

Additional Papers:

Civic Engagement Platforms Design for, and By, Citizens - By Kevin C. Desouza, Associate Dean, College of Public Programs and Kendra L. Smith, Doctoral Candidate, Arizona State University

Citizen Intelligence and Online Civic Platforms - By Kevin C. Desouza, Associate Dean, College of Public Programs and Kendra L. Smith, Doctoral Candidate, Arizona State University (This paper originally appeared in Planning)

The Case for Blended Citizen Engagement: Offline and Online - By Kevin C. Desouza and Kendra L. Smith, Arizona State University (This paper originally appeared in Public Sector Digest)