Handbook for Deliberative Community Forums

In Pittsburgh (USA) werden die Einwohner mithilfe von „Deliberative Community Forums“ an der Suche nach einem Polizeichef oder bei den Haushaltsberatungen beteiligt. Ein (englischsprachiges) Handbuch beschreibt, wie das funktioniert.

The City of Pittsburgh has used Deliberative Community Forums to generate meaningful public engagement on a variety of topics. Using these protocols, residents helped us make a timely decision in the selection of a new Chief of Police. During our capital budgeting process, these forums helped us to better identify residents’ priorities. We also have had much success engaging residents on future policy directions and national initiatives by using the deliberative model to facilitate resident engagement with our Affordable Housing Task Force and our City’s adoption of the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

Deliberative Community Forums seek to discover what people think about an issue after they have engaged deeply with multiple, alternative perspectives. These forums provide the resources citizens need to develop an opinion informed by relevant facts, expert information, and an understanding of how issues and policies affect others in their community.
Elements of a Deliberative Forum
1. Organizers recruit a diverse group of participants.
2. Participants receive background materials offering basic information and a balanced overview of various perspectives on issues.
3. Participants engage in small-group discussions facilitated by trained moderators.
4. Participants’ questions are addressed by a resource panel of people with expertise on the issues.
5. Participants return to small groups to reflect on the information provided by resource panelists.
6. Participants complete an exit survey.

Mehr dazu hier: http://hss.cmu.edu/pdd/cities/handbook.pdf