NewsWorks

These forums helped WHYY identify content direction — the stories, ideas and people — that will serve as the basis for a new in-depth web-based news service called “NewsWorks,” initially focusing on Germantown, Mt. Airy, Oak Lane and Chestnut Hill sections of Philadelphia. More than 120 residents in the Northwest quadrant of the city participated in these community forums.

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Penn Project for Civic Engagement: Project List

2009: A Shared Prosperity: Immigrant Integration on Our Commercial Corridors

More than 80 Philadelphia residents, business owners and policymakers — with cultural backgrounds ranging from Dominican to Russian to Burmese to West African to Chinese — participated in a public forum about immigrant integration in commercial corridors. The forum was conducted in partnership with the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians and held at WHYY.

Result: Action steps to foster greater collaboration along Philadelphia’s increasingly diverse commercial corridors.

2009: Eds and Meds in Philadelphia: A 2020 Vision

A forum at WHYY with 40 leaders in the higher education and health care sectors, focused on how we can continue to build the strength of those sectors to further build the economy of the region.

Result: Policy recommendations and action steps to help protect this sector from the challenges it faces and to help it seize new opportunities.

2009: Asian Pacific Americans: Town Hall Meeting, One Voice

A forum developed for the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs to identify and work on the most pressing issues affecting the Asian Pacific Americans in Pennsylvania today and to give the FACAA guidelines on how to handle these issues. 

Result: A report for The Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs steps for issues important to Asian Pacific American.

2008: City That Works

Guided deliberative citizen input for the City Budget Office and Managing Director Office, about what criteria citizens would use to evaluate city government success on its six core goals: public safety; education; jobs and economic development; healthy and sustainable communities; ethics; and customer service and a high performing government. Twelve forums were conducted – one in each city council district and one each for the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Young Involved Philadelphians. Representatives from the City Budget Office attended and observed all of the forums.

Result:    City department heads and commissioners say they routinely use data and findings from these forums in planning.

2008: The Big Canvas and Confab

The arts and culture forum series, entitled The Big Canvas engaged more than 500 citizens from Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania suburbs. The closing event, The Big Canvas Confab, engaged more than 200 people, with state, county and township elected officials in a regional conversation to develop the basis of a strategy to fund arts and cultural activities.

Result:    A discussion guide for arts and culture funding in the region and policy recommendations to state and city legislators.

2009: The City Budget: Tight Times, Tough Choices

More than 1,700 taxpayers participated in four workshops and worked through budget choices facing the City of Philadelphia. Participants identified priorities and the trade-offs they were and were not willing to make.

Result:    Mayor Nutter and city officials incorporated citizen input and priorities into the City’s proposed budget for 2010.

2008: Redistricting in the Lower Merion School District

A project with the Lower Merion School District involved more than 500 community residents in developing values-based principles to guide the redistricting process in the District.

Result: A set of 5 values-based principles that the Board used in its redistricting decisions.

2008: Re-Envisioning the Kimmel Center through Civic Engagement and Design

More than 300 citizens developed ideas for energizing and activating the public spaces in and around the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts.  The goal was to attract and welcome more people into the region’s premier arts center.

Result: Citizen input was used as initial specification for redesigning the public spaces at the Kimmel.  Some citizen ideas were immediately implemented.

2006 - 2008: Great Expectations: Citizen Voices on Philadelphia's Future

More than 2,500 Philadelphians participated in more than seventy forums across the city to identify the twelve top issues Philadelphians thought the next Mayor should address.  Journalists and University researchers provided solutions and innovations.  Citizens then critiqued and modified the issues and solutions at a Citizens Convention.

Result: The publication of The Citizens Agenda – a Civic “To Do List” endorsed by Mayor Nutter.

2006/2007: Community forums on the Development of the Central Waterfront

More than 5,000 taxpayers participated in eight citizen forums to develop a unified plan for Philadelphia’s central waterfront – from Allegheny Avenue to Oregon Avenue.

Result:   A civic vision and an action plan that was approved by the City Planning Commission.

2006: Camp Hill School District

Community forums involving more than 150 taxpayers developed the educational and cultural mission and vision for the Grace Millman Pollock Center for the Performing Arts

Result:   A mission and vision statement, including specific design and program ideas, that became the starting point developing a new performing arts center.

2006: National Summit on School Design

The AmericanArchitectural Foundation convened more than 300 professionals — from the fields of architecture, community development and education — for this national invitational workshop to work through design, educational and finance issues for designing schools of the future.

Result:   Co-wrote book-length report of the National Summit on School Design

2005: Engaging Urban Students through Issue-based Deliberation:

The six teachers and 75 students and that comprise the Public Leadership and Service Small Learning Community in the Lancaster School Districts spent a year teaching and learning a curriculum focusing on the concepts and practices of public deliberation.

Result: A study of the project’s impact showed a marked strengthening of students' sense of themselves as citizens and public leaders

2003-2005: Project 540

More than 17,000 students from ten (10) high schools in PA and NJ participated over two years in the PennGSE sites of this national Project to involve high school students in identifying issues of concern to them, developing action plans to address one of those projects and implementing those projects.

Results:   Students in each high school successfully implemented projects addressing their concerns, thereby improving their high school experience.

2005/6: The Franklin Conference on School Design

More than 400 Philadelphians participated in a public process to develop principles and visions for school design in conjunction with the Philadelphia School District's capital improvement program.  The project focused on three sites around the city that the District was actively considering.

Result:   Architectural drawings and site plans for the three sites, along with programming descriptions were published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

2004-2006: Community Forums on 40th St

More than 250 West Philadelphians participated in a series of community engagement forums to develop principles for the development of the 40th Street Corridor.

Result:   Creation of the "Friends of 40th Street" which continues to meet regularly and advocate for improvement to the corridor and their quality of life.

2003: The Bensalem Waterfront Development Project

A dozen students from Bensalem High School students participated in an after-school activity that paralleled a Penn School of Design landscape architecture studio developing possible designs for the Bensalem Township waterfront along the Delaware. High School students also conducted community forums that yielded principals to guide their work and that of the and Penn student

Result:   Students presented their design principles and deisgn ideas to the Bensalem mayor, township commissioners and the public.

2003: The Penn's Landing Forums

More than 500 citilzens participated in public processes cosponsored by Penn Praxis and the Design Advocacy Group. Through deliberative forums and design charrettes, participants developed three alternative visions for the development of Philadelphia's central waterfront

Result:   A set of design principles that  were built into the Philadelphia’s specifications for future development plans. and three distinct designs for Penn’s Landing

2002: Strategic Visioning Process for The Philadelphia Inquirer

More than 60 employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer – including leaders and representatives of all major departments — participated in a companywide process to create newspaper's new suburban strategy

Result: Creation of a new section and modification of several others.

2000/2001: Mechanicsburg Area School District (MASD)

More that 200 community residents participated in open forums to determine what to do with an old middle school building that was being replaced and possible reconfiguration of the district’s elementary schools.

Result: A set of building use criteria that the Mechanicsburg Area School District used in making its facilities decisions.

1999: Radnor School District

More than 100 people from Radnor Township participated in community forums on the family, the environment and youth policy.  In addition to the substantive issues, forums were part of a study to assess their impact on relationships among different stakeholder groups in the district.

Result: Reduced contention between different stakeholder groups in the district and community forums were used for two facilities projects between 2000 and 2005.

1998: West York District

Three hundred (300) residents of the West York School District participated in a series of community forums on issues facing the school district, including youth policy and school funding issues.

Result: Increased community involvement in the school district policies, and smooth passage of a previously contentious budget.

Citizen Voices Projects with the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

2002: Citizen Voices on the Pennsylvania Governor's Race (with the Pennsylvania Economy League)

More than 250 area residents participated in citizen dialogues to identify issues for the 2003 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race

2002: Citizen Voices on Health Care: The Soul of Medicine (with the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility

More than 180 area residents participated in citizen dialogues to identify issues in local health care scene

2001 — Citizen Voices on the New Jersey Governor's Race (with W-thepeople.org)

More than 70 people participated in citizen dialogues, broadcast debate and online town hall debate.  (Project was delayed and reduced in scope due to 9/11 attacks)

2000: Citizen Voices on Senate Elections (with E-thepeople.org)

Over 150 area residents participated in face-to-face and online dialogues on N.J. and Pa. U.S. Senate races. The projected included in a continuous week-long online forum and "town hall debate" in which candidates answered citizen questions

1999: Citizen Voices (with the Annenberg School for Communication, WHYY, ABC-6)

This year-long project involved more than 800 Philadelphians in naming, framing and deliberating issues in the mayor's race. The project included: two day-long issues conventions, two live TV debates focusing on citizen questions, one TV town hall meet, radio debate and town hall, and broadcast issues forums.

1997: Citizen Voices on the New Jersey Governor's Race

More than 400 people from southern New Jersey were involved in naming, framing and deliberating state issues. The project included the broadcast of a gubernatorial debate with NJN and ABC-6.

1996: Citizen Voices invented (with WHYY-91FM)

More than 150 area residents participated in community forums and congressional debates in the 13th and 3rd districts. Three forums and two debates, with citizen questions, were broadcast on WHYY-91FM