Building Community Networks through Education and Opportunity: A Case Study in Public Land Management
Introduction
A participatory culture is one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another as a form of civic engagement. The community itself provides strong incentives for active participation and it has become increasingly obvious that the public has knowledge that is different from, yet just as important as, the knowledge of experts. Fostering meaningful participatory action based on solidarity, mutual learning and relationship-building, needs to occur throughout the process of promoting civic engagement, and building a collaborative network. Combining public participation
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Engaged citizens often lead the charge and provide the catalyst for new policies and improvements in public services. Collaborative structures involving engaged citizens may take many forms such as a formal network, a coalition, partnerships, or informal coordination services (Agranoff & McGuire, 2003a; Agranoff & McGuire, 2003b; Nalbandian, 2005). However, both expert knowledge, and the knowledge of the public are valuable in making policy decisions and achieving the goals of the collaborative structure. Effective civic engagement can be difficult to define and even harder to achieve. Challenges in the form of participation or inclusion, communication or sharing information, and legitimacy or authority can take shape in any form of collaboration involving engaged citizens. Building participation, examining the impacts, management, and facing challenges are important steps for effective civic engagement. This paper will discuss these steps as they relate to education and opportunities to promote citizen involvement and identify the challenges demonstrated concerning Oregon’s Elliot State …show more content…
Civic-minded citizens engage in many activities including educating and informing themselves about social and political issues, volunteering for civic organizations, efforts to garner support from the community for a specific cause, serving on boards and committees, and working with political entities to shape policy decisions. The United States Forest Service’s “2012 Planning rule” and Bureau of Land Management’s “Planning 2.0 rule” are examples of federal agency efforts to encourage balanced and broad representation with all levels of government, the science community, environmental and conservation groups, recreation users, private landowners, and private industry (Lanham, 2016; Leavenworth, 2017; Siler, 2017). As clients and community activists become increasingly engaged in the planning and delivery of services alongside public sector professionals, the networks created will adapt to meet different roles and functions to serve the public needs. Volunteers, non-profits, and community-based organizations can continue to grow and develop as civic-minded individuals as a result of civic engagement (Bringle et al., 2011). To promote this trend government agencies would need to assume a role of supporting, encouraging, and coordinating the capabilities of organizations, service users, and communities (Bovaird,
On the national civics assessment, “two-thirds of 12th graders scored below ‘proficient’…and only 9 percent could list two ways a democracy benefits from citizen participation” (O’Connor and Romer 4). The information provided clarifies just how little students know about democracy. Without education on the subject, they are unaware as to how their government contribution is beneficial and why it is needed in the first place. The students, because of their lack of understanding, therefore choose to not take part in their government and fail to carry out their duties as a citizen. The authors provide more research that shows “the better people understand our history and system of government, the more likely they are to vote and participate in the civic life” (O’Connor and Romer 8).
The author writes that in asset based community development and a core Public Allies belief, is that the symbolic “glass of water” is both half empty and half full. The author extends the example to individuals as well as communities in saying that “ever member of a community, no exceptions, has gifts and talents that contribute to the community.” Additionally, every individual and community has weaknesses, and the proper application of leadership is to combine everybody’s assets to counter everybody’s weaknesses in the process of improving our communities. Public Allies makes no attempt as an organization to find and correct weaknesses, they only identify Allies’ assets to train them into community leaders. These ideas align well with the authors definition of leadership.
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
Regardless of the political environment, it is the responsibility of voters to take initiative in becoming politically involved. However, the current electoral system in the United States is not one that fosters voter participation, but instead often discourages voting altogether. This is evidenced through the lackluster voter turnout in the United States, which is amongst the lowest of any democratic nation. While it is convenient to blame this lack of democratic participation on a lazy and apathetic public, the root of the problem lies elsewhere. The current system of winner-take-all elections, strategic gerrymandering, incumbency advantage and governmental unresponsiveness to constituent desires is enough to deter even the most politically consci...
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Citizen involvement: A practical guide for change. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan. Beresford, P., 8! Harding, T. (Eds.). (1993).
Green, Donald. "Youth Voting” THE CENTER FOR INFORMATION & RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT. Tufts University, 2012. Web. 02 Oct 2013. .
Volunteerism, civic engagement and advocacy are the driving forces for creating change and making a positive impact in your community and society at large. While gaining internship and job experience can lead to community impact and social change, it’s important for us to remember that before we start advocating for change and informing others about issues we care about, we need to fully understand the complexity and depth of the social, environmental, or economic issue we are passionate about.
To achieve civic engagement is undertaken in many diverse ways. These are determined by several factors, amongst them the purpose of the civic engagement, the people involved in it, the funds to be involved amongst others. The...
As young people’s civic and political participation continues to decline, a number of organizations are working to reverse the decline by increasing opportunities for youth to participate. Communities around the country are taking steps to engage young people through a variety of methods that allow youth to actually participate in policy development and take action on local issues. The effectiveness of such community programs on long-term civic engagement is not well documented, however. This paper presents preliminary research about the effectiveness of one community participation program, the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Youth Advisory Council. Quantitative and anecdotal evidence, while not conclusive, suggest this community problem solving approach may encourage its participants to engage in other civic and political activities. The paper also discusses the benefits that organizations and communities receive when young people participate in this way, and provides recommendations for developing a similar youth participation program.
However, by listening to the ideas and problems of the community as a whole, the happiness of each individual citizen would not be fulfilled. It can be a challenge for the public administrator when citizens and/or small groups promote their own special interests. The administrator cannot ignore them, because the policy must and should reflect the broader views and ideas of the community. Public administrators need to examine new technological innovations to ensure that policies are implemented properly and effectively and produce desire results.
Community engagement is now a priority in many public sector agencies. Besides appealing to democratic principles, citize...
Community engagement is the active participation of local residents and community groups in the decisions that affect their lives (Herefordshire Council, 2013). Therefore, community engagement should be about engaging in open communication to ensure the council understands the needs of the local community.
“Wise democratic processes are those which utilize a community's or society's diversity to deepen shared understanding and produce outcomes of long-term benefit to the whole community or society. Not all public participation serves this purpose. Public participation can either enhance or degrade the collective intelligence and wisdom involved in democratic processes such as making collective decisions, solving social problems, and creating shared visions. The principles below offer some guidance for designing wise democratic processes”. Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute
...rganizations have also shown that the key to success lies in the evolution and participation of community based organizations at the grass-root level.