Top 8 civic engagement strategy to boost civic participation

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A civic engagement strategy refers to the concerted approach of involving stakeholders in organizational initiatives, policy formulation, and decision-making. Boosting citizen participation enables access to ground-level insights and promotes informed decisions.

Several countries have successfully involved citizens in the policy formulation and decision-making process.

‘Citizen’s Jury’ launched by the Australian government, ‘Deliberative Democracy Lab’ by the Chinese government, and ‘Participatory Budgeting’ in France are some notable examples of successful application of the community engagement strategy.

Today’s communities are diverse with people from different demographics, life style, and tech-saviness. Engaging them requires a sound, multifaceted approach tailored based on the attributes and needs of the community.

This article offers an overview of the top civic engagement strategies for government organizations.

Why civic engagement matters

Whether it is a small community project or a massive policy change, a sound citizen engagement strategy matters. Here’s why:

1. Increased ownership

Promoting citizen participation instills a sense of ownership in the community. When they feel heard and their opinions acknowledged, they are more likely to commit themselves to the process and outcomes. The increased advocacy for the initiatives improves the project outcomes.

2. Effective decisions

Citizen engagement in government offers access to diverse insights, opinions, and perspectives. This in turn drives informed decisions and effective strategies. Holding frequent discussions with the community promotes collaborative planning and decision-making.

3. Improved community trust

Constant public engagement and communication increase transparency and hold the stakeholders accountable. This in turn enhances the credibility and trustworthiness of the organization’s activities.

4. Enhanced outcomes

Engaging with different stakeholders like non-profit organizations, citizens, and professionals in the community creates a platform for co-creation and drives innovation. This in turn improves the quality and effectiveness of outcomes.

On the other hand, it improves citizen satisfaction and improves their accountability.

A McKinsey study shows that satisfied citizens are 9 times more likely to trust government organizations.

So, a robust civic engagement strategy is a win-win for both, the government organization and citizens.

Top 8 civic engagement strategies

Let us explore the masterful strategies that can enhance the impact of your initiatives and policy decisions:

1. Prioritize relevant stakeholders

Different community projects may require support, feedback, and engagement of different stakeholders. It is humanely impossible to connect with each of them. Stakeholder analysis and mapping help identify relevant stakeholders, group them, and understand their preferences. The insights help government organizations tailor communication strategies based on specific requirements.

2. Effective communication

Communication forms the cornerstone of all public engagement efforts. Communicating clearly and consistently helps secure public trust and commitment to your initiatives. You must identify communication barriers and work out ways to sort them.

Whether you are using digital medium or physical means, articulate your message in simple, clear terms. Do not use jargon. Help them understand the objective of the public engagement strategy, what is expected of their participation, and possible outcomes. This helps draw their attention and support for your initiatives and programs.

3. Make it accessible and inclusive

While you invest in community engagement strategies, ensure that they are accessible to the vast majority of the population. Identify the under-represented and marginalized section of the community. Work out exclusive strategies to engage and accommodate the accessibility needs of those with language barriers, disabilities, and so on.

For example, when it comes to engaging with senior citizens, imagery with the message works better than long-form text messages. Understanding such needs and catering to them helps achieve inclusive participation in all your initiatives.

4. Create participatory messages

Citizens stay committed and accountable when their opinions are heard and feedback is acknowledged. Create quick polls and messages to collect feedback. Collect feedback regularly from the community and make changes based on their inputs.

Being responsive helps enhance the effectiveness of the initiatives. It is also a way to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to community welfare.

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5. Personalized engagement strategy

Residents prefer to engage when the strategy and outcomes are more personal than generic. Some of the personalized communication examples to improve citizen experience include the following:

Personalized feedback invite: “As a local startup founder, we would love to hear your feedback on this.”
Acknowledging contribution: “Thank you for volunteering last week. Here is another one you may love!”
Sending customized alerts: “Tennesse Street Residents: Power shut down is scheduled for tomorrow.”

6. Invest in blended engagement methods

In general, the millennial and Gen-Z population prefer virtual platforms that are more convenient for communication and engagement. On the other hand, senior citizens may prefer in-person meetings and discussions. So, organizations must invest in digital platforms as well as physical infrastructure to bring more people to the table.

7. Use the right tools

Public engagement may become overwhelming if you don’t have the right citizen engagement platforms, software systems, and technological expertise. Using secure messaging platforms helps simplify communication by sending real-time notifications and alerts, conducting polls, seeking feedback, and so on. Video conferencing and interactive meeting software help host large meetings.

You must invest in social listening tools to be able to monitor public sentiment and collect feedback across different channels. Project management and secure collaboration tools help drive transparent collaboration and active civic participation. Using the right business intelligence tools helps synthesize public data and feedback into actionable insights.

8. Incentivize participation

Recognizing public participation and acknowledging their efforts motivates them to engage more actively. Offering reward points, gift cards, or access to exclusive events are some ways to encourage citizen engagement.

You may also consider spotlighting active participants on the local media. This would encourage more people to participate and get more involved.

Case studies

Community engagement in Australia

Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority in Australia allows the public to register their complaints and comments in different ways, including an online form, phone call, or emergency number. They are recorded in software and redirected to the relevant authorities for redressal. Engaging citizens proactively ensures improved accountability of the government organization.

Citizen engagement in the Singapore government

The Singapore government uses different ways to enhance citizen participation. It has an exclusive department called REACH (Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry@Home) that is vested with the responsibility to connect with the public and collect feedback on national and social issues. It promotes citizen communication through different digital mediums including social media channels, WhatsApp, email, online forms, and so on.

The department also conducts face-to-face sessions to promote deeper engagements. Such engagements help break silos and foster openness between the government and the public.

Key Takeaway

An effective civic engagement strategy helps foster accountability and ownership among citizens. It also helps enhance the quality of decisions and public initiative outcomes. Regular communication, personalized engagement strategies, and using different mediums help improve the inclusivity of different programs.

Investing in the right citizen engagement software is the key to driving continuous engagement and broad public participation. The software should be customizable to meet the specific needs of your strategy. It should have robust security features to ensure privacy and integrity of citizen data.

Rocket.Chat is a secure citizen communication platform with advanced features, customizability, and scalability. Besides governments across the globe, the tool is trusted by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the US military. It has evolved as a go-to government chat app and here’s why:

Highly customizable, open-source platform
End-to-end encryption and multi-factor authentication
180+ role-based user controls to prevent unauthorized access
Video conferencing, voice calling, and live chat abilities
Chat rooms, polls, and feedback options
Secure file-sharing abilities
Deployment in on-premise and air-gapped environment
Omni-channel engagement via WhatsApp, SMS, email.
Integration with 100+ stakeholder engagement and project management tools.

With advanced security features, deployment abilities, and scalability, the platform has been driving citizen participation, government collaboration, and co-creation in public organizations.

Contact Rocket.Chat team and explore further!