In my previous post I introduced Canada25, an organization that facilitated the participation of thousands of young Canadians in public policy between 2000-2007. As I wrote in that post, I now see Canada25 as a precursor to what the internet now enables: a much larger articulation of citizens' desire to be involved in their communities and their countries. Canada25 existed to help organize and facilitate that interest.
From this experience, there are a few practical things I learned about how to engage people in public policy. Above all, it's important to understand that engagement is a process, so thinking through the process, what you want to achieve, and how you can enable and inspire others to participate, is critical.
One day, I'd love to write this up more completely into a case study, or share the experience with someone who researches these subjects. Aside from Don Lenihan's excellent work in New Brunswick, which he's now developing elsewhere in Canada and abroad, I know of few other examples of sustained citizen engagement in public policy.
Below are a few quick points on why, looking back, we were able to get so many people involved.
First, be clear on motivations and design your processes around them. For example, with time and experience, we learned that there were really four types of people who were involved in Canada25.
- One, a group that loved the country or were concerned about its future, and/or really enjoyed the engagement process. This was the smallest but most committed group, and formed the basis of our volunteers.
- Two, those who cared deeply about their community, however they defined it (e.g. city, demographic, gender, professional group). Canada25 provided a concrete way for them to give the experiences of their communities national reach.
- Three, those who cared about the policy topic. For example, we had a great group of urban designers who participated in our cities project and contributed their passion and expertise on that one topic for the duration of their involvement in Canada25.
- Four, the people who wanted an opportunity to learn, develop professionally and meet like-minded people. This was among the biggest motivators for people, but one that we didn't fully appreciate until several years in.
Second, have a well-defined plan and structure in place that is open to participation at all points along the chain. From the selection of our policy topic through to the final edits of the report, there were opportunities for volunteers to get involved, and we made suggestions on how they could do so. Not everyone wants, or has time, to participate at every juncture in the process, but they hopefully knew the opportunity was available to them.
Third, couple online and offline activities. We lived in the pre-Facebook era. Although we used online chat rooms, conference calls, exchanged lots of emails and met face-to-face when we could, it was the personal relationships that sustained us through the late nights. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion it would be harder to sustain the focus we had in today's social media world.
Fourth, the work has to be linked to something concrete that matters beyond the individual. Our volunteers knew a report would be created. Even if it took time, they knew their contributions were leading somewhere. They also knew we’d try to get it into the hands of policy makers - something we were deeply committed to and, occasionally, succeeded at!
Lastly, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Over 7 years, Canada25 only had one employee, the indefatigable Andrew Medd. However, that was not enough to sustain the organization in the long-term, so we decided to close our doors in 2007. There were a number of reasons we had to do so, among them the complexities of charitable law, government funding, youth and inexperience - a whole other story worth writing up one day!
And on that note, I'd be particularly interested in hearing from anyone else who has successful public policy engagement stories to tell. If you'd like to write up your experience, we can include it on this blog. In addition, former Canada25ers may also want to add to this attempt to analyze what we did. A few alum, including Chris Kennedy and David Eaves have done so on their own blogs in the past.
As one reader of the first post wrote, "important legacies can emerge from citizen engagement." I think that's true. The organization's policy reports and alumni are still very active in public life today, both in Canada and abroad. Personally, the experience certainly put me on a path that led to the creation of Samara... so in many ways, to the story continues!