Public Engagement Made Easy


Book Description

Local leaders don’t need to become professional facilitators or hire expensive consultants to run a great meeting. Public Engagement Made Easy offers practical and affordable methods that bring ease to one of the most challenging aspects of any local leader’s role: involving the public. The tools and techniques in this book will empower planners, public managers, decision-makers, and other leaders to implement effective public engagement programs that build trust within communities and contribute to successful decisions that stand the test of time.




Becoming an Engaged Campus


Book Description

Becoming an Engaged Campus offers campus leaders a systematic and detailed approach to creating an environment where public engagement can grow and flourish. The book explains not only what to do to expand community engagement and how to do it, but it also explores how to document, evaluate, and communicate university engagement efforts. Praise for Becoming an Engaged Campus "This provocative yet exceedingly practical book looks at all of the angles and lays bare the opportunities and barriers for campus-community engagement while providing detailed pathways toward change. This comprehensive treatise marks a significant shift in the literature from the what and why of public engagement to the how. It is simply superb!" —KEVIN KECSKES, associate vice provost for engagement, Portland State University "Becoming an Engaged Campus is an essential guidebook for university leaders. It details the specific ways that campuses must align all aspects of the institution if they are to be successful in the increasingly important work of community outreach and engagement." —GEORGE L. MEHAFFY, vice president for academic leadership and change, American Association of State Colleges and Universities "Most colleges and universities make the rhetorical claim of community engagement; this book is an excellent primer on how to transform the rhetoric into reality. The authors do not speak in abstract terms. They describe the specific structures, policies, and programs that have made Northern Kentucky University a national model of how a large urban university can transform its impact on the region it is supposed to serve." —WILLIAM E. KIRWAN, chancellor, University System of Maryland




Modern-Day Strategies for Community Engagement


Book Description

Government agencies, corporations, and organizations have often experienced difficulty when trying to connect with the people who are most impacted by their projects. It is necessary to leave the office, get from behind the computer, and interact with people face-to-face. There is an art and process to engaging with your community--a group of people with shared commonality. This book serves as a primer for how the public and private sectors can interact with their customers and constituents in an authentic, equitable, and intentional manner. In Modern-Day Strategies for Community Engagement: How to Effectively Build Bridges Between People and the Bottom Line, MaKara Rumley takes the reader through the process of effective community engagement. She sets the stage for why community engagement remains an invaluable tool when it comes to managing headline risk, maintaining project timelines, and ensuring good will. With Modern-Day Strategies for Community Engagement as a guide, the reader will engender confidence in their ability to implement measurable strategies and communicate using plain language that will resonate with their prioritized audience.




Engage Every Family


Book Description

Reach beyond theory and engage every family in student success Family engagement increases student achievement but how do schools connect with families who don’t participate yet? Educators can easily become frustrated trying to reach the disconnected and often fall back to engaging the already engaged. Is it possible to win over everyone? Discover how to move beyond theory to change your culture for better family engagement and student achievement. Through practical steps, reflections, and case studies, you will discover and address: How and where family engagement breaks down, and How to create a truly inviting culture for successful community and family partnerships




Library Programming Made Easy


Book Description

Libraries are always looking for new ways to engage with their patrons, and well-planned programming is one way to accomplish this goal. Library programming accomplishes this. Successful programming can be found in offering a variety of events, focusing activities on specific constituents, and providing meaningful library experiences. It can also be seen in advertising, social media, and the careful planning and execution of programs that ensure high quality engagement and participation. This book provides in-depth practical advice and examples of public and academic library programming activities. Included in this volume are methods for identifying target audiences, activities and ways to find and generate even more ideas, tools for assessment and budgeting, and tips on planning programs from inception to execution. Chapters include: Making a Case for Programming Discovering the Best Programs for Your Library Finding Programming Partners Funding and Budgeting Getting Organized and Executing Programs Advertising Your Programs for Success Public and Academic Library Programming Assessment and Evaluation Libraries use programming to build and maintain strong partnerships and collaborative opportunities that actively engage their users. In addition to these community-building measures programming can provide assessment tools that help inform future decision-making within the library environment while also assuring quality events and activities. Use this book to attract new patrons, highlight library services and resources, and showcase the overall quality and value of your library.




Material Participation: Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics


Book Description

This book develops a fresh perspective on everyday forms of engagement, one that foregrounds the role of objects, technologies and settings in democracy. Examining a range of devices, from smart meters to eco-homes, the book sets out new concepts and methods for analyzing the relations between participation, innovation and the environment.




Confessions of a Recovering Engineer


Book Description

Discover insider secrets of how America’s transportation system is designed, funded, and built – and how to make it work for your community In Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, renowned speaker and author of Strong Towns Charles L. Marohn Jr. delivers an accessible and engaging exploration of America’s transportation system, laying bare the reasons why it no longer works as it once did, and how to modernize transportation to better serve local communities. You’ll discover real-world examples of poor design choices and how those choices have dramatic and tragic effects on the lives of the people who use them. You’ll also find case studies and examples of design improvements that have revitalized communities and improved safety. This important book shows you: The values of the transportation professions, how they are applied in the design process, and how those priorities differ from those of the public. How the standard approach to transportation ensures the maximum amount of traffic congestion possible is created each day, and how to fight that congestion on a budget. Bottom-up techniques for spending less and getting higher returns on transportation projects, all while improving quality of life for residents. Perfect for anyone interested in why transportation systems work – and fail to work – the way they do, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer is a fascinating insider’s peek behind the scenes of America’s transportation systems.




Scientists, Experts, and Civic Engagement


Book Description

How do scientists, scholars, and other experts engage with the general public and with the communities affected by their work or residing in their sites of study? Where are the fine lines between public scholarship, civic engagement, and activism? Must academics 'give back' once they collect data and publish results? In this volume, authors from a wide range of disciplines examine these relationships to assess how they can be fruitful or challenging. Describing the methodological and ethical issues that experts must consider when carrying out public scholarship, this book includes a checklist for critical factors of success in engagement and an examination of the role of digital social media in science communication. Illustrated by a range of case studies addressing environmental issues (climate change, resource use, post-disaster policy) and education, it offers an investigation into the levels and ways in which scholars can engage, and how and whether academics and experts who engage in community work and public scholarship are acknowledged and rewarded for doing so by their institutions. Also bringing into the debate the perspective of citizens who have collaborated with academics, the book offers an exploration of the democratizing potential of participatory action research.




The Full Scoop on BS


Book Description

To truly be the full scoop instead of another load of BS, The Full Scoop on BS differentiates between types that are less or more harmful and reasonably explains why they differ. It examines the roots of that ubiquitous entity and the skill deficits which so often enable the worst kinds of BS. It provides a practical means of detection and eradication of the most-harmful types. In the process, this book promotes conscious, functional thought processes. Humour and anecdotes, and humorous anecdotes, help keep the normally academic concepts tangible, relevant and applicable to most people's lives. Despite the profane aspect of the topic and the sometimes-profane vocabulary of the author, no profanity appears anywhere within. Polite society often condemns profanity even though many past societies were treacherous, murderous and none too polite. Such is the nature of a world filled with BS.




Social Media for Government


Book Description

This book provides practical know-how on understanding, implementing, and managing main stream social media tools (e.g., blogs and micro-blogs, social network sites, and content communities) from a public sector perspective. Through social media, government organizations can inform citizens, promote their services, seek public views and feedback, and monitor satisfaction with the services they offer so as to improve their quality. Given the exponential growth of social media in contemporary society, it has become an essential tool for communication, content sharing, and collaboration. This growth and these tools also present an unparalleled opportunity to implement a transparent, open, and collaborative government. However, many government organization, particularly those in the developing world, are still somewhat reluctant to leverage social media, as it requires significant policy and governance changes, as well as specific know-how, skills and resources to plan, implement and manage social media tools. As a result, governments around the world ignore or mishandle the opportunities and threats presented by social media. To help policy makers and governments implement a social media driven government, this book provides guidance in developing an effective social media policy and strategy. It also addresses issues such as those related to security and privacy.