The Penn Project for Civic Engagement

The Penn Project for Civic Engagement (PPCE) is a cross-University project that collaborates with media, business, and community agencies to identify and address emerging issues.  PPCE links citizen concerns to expert knowledge and media coverage, to develop real world solutions that might not emerge otherwise.

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

We believe that public deliberation is not "civic busy work".  Rather, civic engagement should have tangible impact on civic life.  The output should guide the work of citizens and policy-makers alike.

Thus, one of the key contributions of our work together has been designing civic engagement to have useful output.  That output takes several forms:

One form 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 Delware 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.

Another 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.

A third form of output is a clear statement of trade-offs and priorities taxpayers are and are not willing to support, which grew out of the Tight Times, Tough Choices city budget workshops.

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

For more information, contact:
Dr. Harris Sokoloff, Executive Director
Center for School Study Councils
University of Pennsylvania
215-898-7371