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Civic Engagement Government Communication PIO Public Engagement Public Information

Treat Residents as Stakeholders, Not Customers by “Channeling” Community Engagement

The challenge for successful communication and information-sharing

As an appetizer…

This article compares communication strategies between public institutions, particularly local governments, and the private sector. While both sectors aim to engage their audiences, they differ significantly in purpose and approach. Local governments often struggle due to resource limitations and legal constraints, unlike private businesses which aim to make themselves accessible and distinct. Social media plays a role but poses challenges for governments due to scattered accounts and limited staff resources. An omnichannel approach can improve government communication. It’s crucial to recognize that residents are stakeholders, not customers, and prioritize meaningful participation to build trust and enhance civic infrastructure in local communities.

As the main course…

Most public and private organizations have a communication and information-sharing (CIS) strategy for their audiences. Businesses interact with prospective and existing customers. Public institutions interact with constituents and residents.

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Civic Engagement Local Government State Government

IIJA: Engagement’s Impact on Funding

 

(This is a reprint of a blog post contributed to PublicInput.com)

As the National Association of Regional Partnerships, or NARC, wraps up its annual National Conference of Regions meeting in Washington, D.C., two important federal funding initiatives have regions thinking about new opportunities and challenges for their connected jurisdictions.

The American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and the (“Bi-partisan”) Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, will distribute $1.9 trillion and $1.2 trillion, respectively, to state and local governments

National Investment: Local Impacts

ARPA funds are tied to the economic hardships suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic and can be used for supporting public health expenditures; addressing negative economic impacts of the pandemic; replacing lost public-sector revenue; and providing premium pay for essential workers.

IIJA funds provide a huge multi-year investment into the improvement and innovation of the nation’s infrastructure. Everything from transportation to broadband internet expansion and water pipe replacement is the target of this federal funding program. Roads and bridges are the biggest beneficiaries.

Social, environmental, and infrastructure challenges facing local jurisdictions typically do not stop at a legal boundary. Hence, the need for these jurisdictions to have established formal agreements in place to tackle these challenges and opportunities as a collective.

It’s very common for these agreements to cross state boundaries. For this reason, regional planning, which includes multiple jurisdictions working together to benefit the whole, will be front and center in these programs.  Front and center in that process are MPO’s (Metropolitan Planning Organizations) and COG’s (Councils of Governments) as groups focused on regional initiatives and investments.

As the federal government plans a historical disbursement of funds for state and local infrastructure improvements, local governments are preparing to make their pitch for needed funding for their communities. Many of these initiatives will involve multiple jurisdictions and regional planning partnerships will be critical to pursuing federal funding.

Competition, Planning, & Public Engagement

Competition for IIJA funds will be stiff. “This is why it’s crucial that so many state and local government leaders are doing preparatory work now to position their organizations for the coming influx of federal money,” according to Ellory Monks, co-founder of The Atlas, an online community for local government leaders to crowdsource ideas and advice.

Engagement is highlighted as a key to securing funding

The focus for local jurisdictions in their planning puts public participation as a top priority. Governments will conduct historical civic listening sessions to collect input from residents about their preferences for infrastructure improvements. How well these jurisdictions capture the collective voices of their residents will be tied to the success and the level of funding requested and received.

IIJA includes descriptive requirements for public engagement

No other federal funding program has been as insistent of jurisdictions and descriptive in their requirements surrounding resident engagement to ensure representation, inclusion, and equity in their public participation efforts.

For example, the IIJA offers provisions promoting digital equity along with a $2.75 billion allocation to the category. Among requirements for jurisdictions to qualify for these funds, they must provide detailed plans that:

    • Identify barriers to digital equity faced by covered populations in the state;
    • Provide an assessment of how the objectives will impact the state’s civic and social engagement; and
    • Provide a description of how states plan to collaborate with key community stakeholders and residents

For jurisdictions to meet the important community engagement requirements, the act allows and encourages the use of technology to encourage public participation in the planning process. This encourages public institutions to utilize their civic infrastructure to improve their physical infrastructure.

The Competitive Edge: An Engagement Platform built for equity

Today, many jurisdictions are recognizing the opportunity presented by the pandemic to re-imagine the way they connect and engage with their residents.

PublicInput’s unified public engagement platform helped many jurisdictions provide equitable access to the public process when traditional means of engagement were no longer possible.  By providing options for residents to provide input online, by phone, email, and even text messaging, organizations reported significant increases in participation.

Increasing the volume of participation is one thing, but measuring improvements in equity has been an even more noteworthy benefit of new approaches. Agencies using PublicInput’s Equity Mapping tool have combined census data layers from the EPA’s EJSCREEN with their resident database to visualize engagement from neighborhoods most impacted by the pandemic.

Equity Mapping layers showing participation in low-income and linguistically isolated communities in Austin, TX

Geospatial layers like these can be even more valuable when combined with a resident database that can generate resident segments by census block, EPA EJSCREEN percentile, or another relevant filter such as Qualified Census Tracts (QCT’s). An example below shows how Guilford County, NC did exactly that using PublicInput’s segmentation and reporting tools.  By creating a segment of respondents who live or work in Qualified Census Tracts, they were able to zero in on the input from areas that qualify for ARPA spending. 

Guilford County leveraged PublicInput’s segmentation tools to report on ARPA engagement specifically from residents in Qualified Census Tracts

QCT’s have historically been a key focus for Community Development Block Grants, but more recently have become relevant in deploying ARPA funding. Federal guidelines offer even greater flexibility for expenditures in Qualified Census Tracts, as these areas are often home to communities, households, and businesses disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. With the right technology, agencies can now improve how they engage these communities, and use data to clearly identify key themes and needs.

Whether you’re deploying ARPA funds or pursuing IIJA funding for critical projects, being able to demonstrate equitable community engagement will likely become the tipping point for local governments securing competitive federal dollars for their community.

Categories
Civic Engagement Local Government Public Engagement

Public Engagement and the CIO

(This is a reprint of a blog post contributed to PublicInput.com)

CIOs and IT see a greater role in public engagement

Modern-day government is adding democracy to their list of CIO priorities. In the 2020 State CIO Survey conducted by the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), “Digital services and emerging technologies” took over as the #1 priority replacing cyber security which had held that spot for four years. While CIO/IT engagement with citizens has addressed many public policy areas, those exchanges were never as critical as in their new role that began in March 2020.

When COVID-19 struck, public officials retreated from conventional public engagement practices for the health and safety of themselves and for the members of their communities. Despite this, the imperative for local governments to remain open and continue dialog with residents and facilitate their participation in deliberations remained –particularly in times of crises

Many local governments were unprepared technologically and procedurally for a seamless transition from conventional, in-person meetings to virtual ones. As a result, the circumstances propelled by the pandemic set the stage for an incredible transformation in the IT government space.

CIOs and their teams became the central government employees in public meetings. They were the architects and managers to build and at times run the platforms for public bodies and the public to virtually connect and collaborate.

The expanding CIO role is being recognized by government leaders who are realizing their value beyond traditional technologists and as key players and enablers in the future of government-citizen collaboration.

“We have also seen concrete evidence that technology is expected by the general public and important for communicating and engaging at scale.”  CIO quote from NASCIO survey

Leveraging Technology

Most CIOs and IT staff were challenged early on in the pandemic to cobble together multiple technologies to replicate and comply with traditional in-person meetings and requirements.

Today, many have found end-to-end solutions offering the best fit to bring more diversity, equity, inclusion, and meaning to public engagement and decision-making processes.

Expanding the role and influence of CIOs and IT to ensure the government has a secure and manageable platform that improves both the quantity and quality of collaboration with residents offers both an opportunity and a challenge.

In this year’s NASCIO survey, “with responses being collected a full year after the pandemic began, one answer overwhelmingly stood out as the biggest driver for state governments’ need to digitize: ‘better online experience for citizens.’”

survey from Emerging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) echoed this at the community level. Asked which areas of government where software and technology adoption were made during the pandemic would become permanent, 83% of respondents identified “community engagement.”

What does this new role of “democracy enabler” mean for CIOs and for their departments?

This larger role illustrates the importance of technology solutions to public engagement in governing today. The responsibility to contribute to successful engagement is spread across a broader spectrum of government employees, each contributing their talent to the process.

Public engagement is more than collecting input and feedback from residents. It is a central theme for public institutions to build and rebuild trust among constituents and the opportunity to collect more informed input from subject matter experts in their communities that lead to better decision-making for the whole.

Expect to see an ongoing role for IT as local governments continue to utilize virtual methods along with conventional forms of public engagement to provide residents and public officials with a blended, or hybrid environment that takes advantage of the benefits offered using both formats.