Civic Engagement: Bringing in the Real Experts—A Commentary on the Shaping America's Youth Initiative

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Civic engagement is sweeping the country. Recognized as a new way to solve old problems, more and more elected officials, government agencies, civic leaders, and nonprofit organizations are turning to the public for input and assistance. But, is it a new way? What does civic engagement really look like? Why is it important? How does it differ from what society has done in the past? Shaping America's Youth (SAY) took a model of civic engagement, the town hall meeting, applied it to a critical national health issue, and then went a step further by scientifically analyzing the results. Because of my 30-year experience with the civic-engagement field as a practitioner, a foundation program officer, and a director of an academic research center, I was invited by the SAY leadership to review the SAY process and put in it context. From the point of view of an outside observer, I address here the implications of the SAY town-meeting process and provide a framework in support of civic engagement as a useful tool for addressing the complex issues that face society today. Civic engagement is a way that decision-makers can interact productively with people who really matter—those who have a stake in solving the problems in question. Often misunderstood and now elevated to buzzword status, civic engagement develops and strengthens the relationship between government and community, that is, between the decision-makers and the ones whom their decisions affect. There are a multitude of different interpretations of civic engagement. The term can refer to members of the general public engaging with the civic world. It can describe processes that do everything from providing input to policy-makers to putting people to work side-by-side with government to implement solutions to public problems. Civic-engagement processes can involve people as residents, voters, or taxpayers, in addition to … Address correspondence to Malka Kopell, MPP, Malka R. Kopell Consulting, 150 Hancock St, San Francisco, CA 94114. E-mail: malka.kopell{at}sbcglobal.net