Facilitating for civic engagement

Last month I had the privilege of facilitating for an America Speaks project with the State of the USA. America Speaks vision is one of transformation, "that the public's business will be conducted differently - that by developing a rich national infrastructure for democratic deliberation through our projects, innovation and collaboration, we can access the collective wisdom of the American people."

That of course was what attracted me to them. Their projects involve bringing people together to discuss and inform issues of concern to America Speaks' clients. I have admired their work for some time and had looked for an opportunity to join their cadre of volunteer facilitators when my schedule permitted.

The opportunity arose when I saw call for facilitators for a State of the USA session for the non-profit and philanthropic community leaders. I have been following the new initiative to develop an agreed upon set of national key indicators, believing that this would give us a common standard for measuring progress that has been so sorely lacking. The State of the USA (SUSA) was created to develop this objective set of standard measures, which will be available to on their website. I believe these key indicators will be invaluable to everyone involved in planning and evaluating policy and programs.

"SUSA’s mission is to unite nonprofits, the media, government decision makers, business leaders, scientists, educators and citizens around a single goal: to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the country’s most pressing issues. SUSA will offer Americans a new tool to help them assess where our nation is moving forward and where it has stalled."

I saw that SUSA was not just a client of America Speaks, but a natural partner. The organizations share the common values of improving our country through widespread collaborative efforts. I also appreciated the efforts SUSA is making to seek input from a broad spectrum of stakeholders, knowing that that is what will give the project credibility and make the indicators useful.

The session was in DC on a day I had available, so I sent in my credentials and was pleased to be selected as a facilitator for the session seeking the input of non-profits and foundation regarding SUSA's plans and initial work on indicators. The American Speaks facilitator orientation laid out the goals of both organizations and the upcoming session. They knew the facilitators were all experienced professionals and so they suggested issues that might arise and provided an opportunity for those who facilitated the previous session with the policy analysis community to share what they found helpful. We were shown how that previous session had impacted SUSA's plans and were incorporated into the day's agenda.

The session went as planned and I was excited to see both how well the America Speaks process worked and how important the input of the participants was to SUSA. The participants largely responded with serious deliberation of the questions and enthusiasm for SUSA's goals and process. This was all the more impressive because the caliber of non-profit and foundation people invited are those most likely to disengage or simply leave if they feel their time is not well spent. The debriefing for facilitators was thorough and helpful. It was clear that both organizations wanted our feedback and will use it for the next session with business and industry. If my schedule permits volunteering again, I will certainly do so, as I am eager to learn more about the America Speaks process and see SUSA develop its indicators based on yet another group of stakeholders.