Plenary on Participation

Sean Kershaw, E.D. Citizen’s League:
“We live in a small cold state that was made great by people participating in our communities.” Our role of nonprofits is to create and sustain engaged communities

After the presentations, I asked: “How do you get meaningful participation from the single parent who is working two minimum wage jobs, has good ideas but no time. And, how do you address “participation to death”—some neighborhoods have been involved in public participation projects since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and still have significant problems and have not seen significant solutions.

The responses included using “In reach,” reaching people where they are, on their conditions meeting their needs. Another idea to change participation-- going to workplaces to get the participation. No one pointed out that we have to improve the economic conditions of these communities to get meaningful participation.