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Public Involvement Network News
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
New Resources - Spring 2007
This page provides links to many non-EPA web sites that provide information on public involvement. 
Policy Consensus Institute Issues Three New Guides:
- Getting The Most Out of Public Hearings: Ideas To Improve Public Involvement: This pamphlet explores these questions and offers practical ideas to maximize the effectiveness of public hearings. It is not a sequential “how-to” list of steps for planning and holding public hearings. It is an inventory of ideas for improving public involvement, each of which may be useful for some public hearings.
- Planning Public Forums: Questions to Guide Local Officials: This pamphlet provides practical steps to help local leaders build their capacity to use public forums effectively.
- Civic Engagement: A Guide for Communities: This guide, published by Arlington Forum, makes the case that civic engagement is a healthy way to solve problems by using the metaphor of civic engagement as a practice that a community does to improve its health. The authors, Palma J. Strand and Melinda D. Patrician, co-founded the Arlington Forum, a local initiative of the Civic Organizing Foundation, in 1999.
The three guides can be found at the Policy Consensus Initiative's Web site in the February 2007 Newsletter.
UDAF Releases Behavior Change Guidebook for Water Educators/Watershed Groups
A new guidebook recently released by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) will help watershed managers and other water education professionals improve natural resources by urging citizens to adopt more natural resource-friendly practices.
Getting Your Feet Wet with Social Marketing: A Social Marketing Guide for Watershed Programs, (PDF, 143pp, 7.16M, About PDF) is designed to teach individuals or groups how to successfully promote behavior changes in their local area to targeted groups of people. Though this guide specifically addresses soil and water conservation and water quality efforts, it is based on principles that can be used in any aspect of society.
“Making people aware of a problem and the solutions that are available is only part of the battle,” said Jack Wilbur, UDAF public information specialist and principal author of the guide. “If you want to change people’s behavior, you have to make it worth their while. You have to make the new behavior seem more attractive than not changing.”
Those that can benefit from this publication include water quality educators and managers, park and public land managers, wildlife managers, and groups who work directly with agricultural producers or residential citizens to protect and conserve natural resources.
The 143-page publication is available as a free electronic download from the Department’s website.
New Book Offers Techniques To Communicate Effectively In A Diverse World
The new book Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts focuses on helping people identify their biases, explore ways to reduce them and communicate in more inclusive, bias free ways.
The National Forest Foundation Is Increasing Its Support For Collaboration In Two Ways:
1. The National Forest Foundation Community Assistance Program will provide operational funds of up to $15K over two years to support a collaboration effort. The biggest anticipated cost of a true collaborative process is contracting with a third-party facilitator. This program does not require a 1:1 non-federal match of funds. Look for the 2008 deadline. The staff contact is Adam Liljeblad (aliljeblad@natlforests.org).
2. See this issue’s WestCAN article.
The Partnership Resource Center's Web site provides partnering and collaborative organizations and government agencies' staff with information and access they can use to enhance working relationships. Click on “resources for partnerships” to find links to information on specific topics, including possible funding sources, monitoring and evaluation, success stories, and tools and guides.