Principle #6: Impact & Action
Ensure each participatory effort has the potential to make a difference, and that participants are aware of that potential. Other Information:
IMPACT AND ACTION - Ensure each participatory effort has the potential to make a difference, and that participants are aware
of that potential. In high quality engagement: People believe — and can see evidence — that their engagement was meaningful,
influencing government decisions, empowering them to act effectively individually and/or together, or otherwise impacting the
world around them. Communications (of media, government, business and/or nonprofits involved) ensure the appropriate publics
know the engagement is happening and talk about it with each other. Convening organizations or agencies maximize the quality
and use of the input provided, and report back to participants and the public about how data from the program influenced their
decisions or actions. The effort is productively linked to other efforts on the issue(s) addressed. Because diverse stakeholders
understand, are moved by, and act on the findings and recommendations of the program, problems get solved, visions are pursued,
and communities become more vibrant, healthy, and successful — despite ongoing differences. What to avoid: Participants have
no confidence that they have had any meaningful influence — before, during, or after the public engagement process. There is
no follow-through from anyone, and hardly anyone knows it happened, including other people and groups working on the issue
being addressed. Participants' findings and recommendations are inarticulate, ill-timed, or useless to policy-makers — or seem
to represent the views of only a small unqualified group — and are largely ignored or, when used, are used to suppress dissent.
Any energy or activity catalyzed by the event quickly wanes.
Objective(s):
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