League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Engages Communities
in Quality-of-Life Policy Dialogue

(SACRAMENTO, CA., Dec. 5, 2001)—The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund is implementing a project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to participate in a grassroots and collaborative effort to foster ever-higher levels of public engagement in California around fiscal, infrastructure and land use reforms with the aim of linking citizens and citizen leaders to the policy makers and policy outcomes critical to achieving sensible, long-term reform. The project intends to build upon the efforts of the California 2000 Project (C2K), now known as the California Policy Forum, and its partners to engage citizens of California in public dialogue about quality of life.

Local Leagues of the League of Women Voters and community organizations are convening forums that invite everyone to deliberate the issues behind creating desirable and vital communities. The forums use a guide that the League developed through an issue framing process, called "CHOICES for a Vital Community: Which Way Do We Go?"

These forums provide a venue for citizens' voices to be heard and for diverse members of the community to become involved with elected officials and policy makers. Specific outreach efforts seek to include under-represented groups who would not otherwise participate in policy discussions. The goal is to empower participants to see their own roles in solving public policy problems, while providing a platform for direct exchange with local officials.

The community forums are a training ground to engage the public in thinking about issues of sustainable communities - - land use, governance and fiscal reform necessary to improve the overall quality of life for everyone in a community or region. Although the Bay Area has had a substantial participation in the Smart Growth project of the Bay Area Alliance, a study just completed by the Public Policy Institute of California cites that 68 percent of the population is not even familiar with the terms "smart growth" or "sprawl". If not already engaged in political issues, people don't immediately think of reform as the solution to the problems they see.

One goal is for participants to gain a better understanding of the complexity of the problems of growth and equity and a more realistic expectation of solutions. They will recognize that they have a role in the process and that their views are needed for equity to occur. These forums set the stage for grassroots involvement for reform of the many arcane processes within the state. They also propel participants on a learning curve that might otherwise take many years, one that will foster development of mature solutions to entrenched problems.

Engagement is the desired outcome of the forums. The framework for discussion to allow that engagement to occur is deliberative dialogue, a model promoted by the Kettering Foundation in their National Issues Forums and used by the Public Policy Institutes. Deliberative dialogue is vital to the exercise of examining difficult choices, known as choicework.

Choicework "requires individuals . . . to grapple with underlying values and the tensions among values.... In every public problem there are several options to solving the problem. In most cases, there is something desirable about each approach. The question of priority arises because the things people care about typically conflict with each other. . . Which should you assign greater importance: clean air and your health, or the convenience and freedom of driving to work?. . . Which of two good things should you choose? . . . The need to choose. . . lies at the heart of politics." (University of California Davis, Public Policy Institute).

Deliberation "requires that we consider values, experiences, and views of ourselves and others. Deliberation also requires us to weigh carefully the costs and consequences of our options for action. . . . Deliberation is not a debate to be won. Deliberation changes relationships, which makes more action possible. Through deliberation a shared sense of purpose and direction may be created." (University of California Davis, Public Policy Institute). The more familiar model of debate seeks to decide. Dialogue alone seeks to educate. Deliberation seeks to both educate and decide.

The two key elements of the CHOICES forum model are: 1) The framework for discussion captures different perspectives on the "problem behind the problem". The aim is to get to the core issues causing the problems we experience. 2) There is no underlying agenda or lesson in the framework. Participants engage in discussion because they know their perspective will be heard, not because they are trying to conform to someone else's proposal.

When this model is used, participants begin to consider other perspectives, see similarities among the viewpoints, or develop new perspectives. By engaging in deliberative discussion, they learn a new technique to analyze problems and conflicts of interest, and then to work through those with a common set of objectives and values.

A local League or organization in your area can convene a community forum on any topic related to quality of life. The League will provide a no-cost facilitator and moderator for the forum and help with community outreach and forming the audience.

For brainstorming and support call the project director, Seena Clark, in Oakland at 510-568-2388 or email her at seenaforums.earthlink.net