Moving from Talk to Action

The movement from talk to action is an enduring challenge of public deliberation.

Public deliberation is not "civic busy work."  Rather, we structure civic engagement to have tangible impact on civic life – guiding the work of citizens and policy-makers alike.

One of the key contributions of our work has been designing civic engagement to have useful outcome.  Those outcomes take several forms: values-based principles, leadership priorities, and citizen trade-offs/directions for action.

One kind of outcome is "values-based principles" to guide decision makers and decision making.  For example, we worked with Penn Praxis to build citizen-developed values-based principles that became the foundation of a civic vision for the Central Delaware River.  In other projects, those values-based principles have informed public policy decisions, framed public discourse, and provided a meaningful link between policy-makers and citizens.

E.g., one value based principle from this project was "Protect the public good."  The implementation plan includes a network of public places (parks, sitting areas, etc.), and a walking, jogging and biking trail along the river which establish the riverfront as a meeting place for all.

Another product is the development of citizen priorities for public leadership.  An example here is the Citizens' Agenda, a 12 point "to do" list for the current administration in Philadelphia.  The Agenda is designed to both affect policy and impact the behavior of city government, as well as of citizens.  The Big Canvas created a different kind of "to do" list - this time of themes, principles, and actions on which to base a strategy for supporting arts and culture in the Greater Delaware Valley.

E.g., one citizen priority for public leadership from the citizen’s agenda was "Get into the business of effective, fair and responsive service delivery." This connects directly to the new 311 call center as clearinghouse for everyday requests for services or attention to problems.

A third kind of result is a clear statement of trade-offs and directions for action taxpayers are and are not willing to support, which grew out of the Tight Times, Tough Choices city budget workshops.

E.g., one direction for action from these workshops was protect the most vulnerable.  In his budget address, Mayor Nutter referred to this priority in proposing that he wanted to increase sales tax by 1% rather than cut services to vulnerable people.

Of course, useful output can take other forms.  As we work on additional projects to engage citizens in important public policy issues, new kinds of output are likely to emerge.