What Public Participation and Community Engagement (PPCE) activities are effective in increasing reach, improving inclusivity, and promoting public involvement and trust in Federal decision-making?

The President’s Management Agenda Priority 2 envisions the delivery of excellent, equitable, and secure services and customer experiences to the American people by and across Federal Government. Yet, Federal services have not always been designed with the public’s needs and priorities in mind, nor have these services always kept up with these needs.  Achieving PMA goals require a renewed emphasis on direct engagement with Americans of all walks of life to reimagine the delivery of Federal services. The American people deserve a government that understands who they are, what they need, and how best to deliver for them.  Federal agencies are embracing the importance of PPCE and trying new and innovative ways to extend engagement opportunities to the public and especially members of communities who historically have been excluded or whose views may not be well represented through traditional public comment processes. 

Given the limitations of public input garnered through traditional PPCE activities, including Federal Register notice and comment processes and Requests for Information, in representing the full breadth of American experiences, agencies are pursuing other approaches, including consultations, listening sessions, customer feedback surveys, user research, and crowdsourcing. More equitable and effective public engagement benefits Federal agencies by improving their awareness of and responsiveness to the perspectives and needs of the communities and individuals affected by their policies and programs. Individuals and communities can benefit by gaining more awareness and understanding of government policies and programs that impact them and sharing their experiences and expertise to influence changes that improve their interactions with and trust in government.

To help agencies develop effective approaches for meaningfully engaging with the public, OMB has recently published a Request for Information in the Federal Register seeking the public’s input on:

• Experiences individuals and organizations have had in participating (or trying to participate) in Federal Government PPCE activities

• Content to incorporate in a Federal framework for PPCE, including common guidelines and leading practices that can help Federal employees better use these methods; and

• Suggestions for how OMB might continue to pursue a collaborative process to co-develop such a framework with the public.

• A critical complement to improving how Federal agencies conduct PPCE activities is the development of methods to evaluate the extent to which the efforts they adopt and implement are effective. Also, as agencies pilot, implement, or experiment with approaches to their PPCE activities, they need support in measuring and evaluating whether and how those changes are an improvement relative to the status quo. Currently, Federal agencies do not have a shared set of valid quantitative or qualitative metrics or well-developed evaluation plans that would enable them to rigorously measure the effectiveness of different approaches to PPCE. 

The challenge invited experts from the public to first develop a technical concept paper, with three winners advancing to Phase II where they then develop and deliver their detailed evaluation toolkit. The three winners of Phase I of the Challenge were:

• Expedition Works

• Partnership for Public Service

• The Improve Group Cooperative

Upon review of the toolkit submissions, the Improve Group Cooperative was selected as the winner of Phase II. The toolkit they developed will be shared widely across the Federal government to enhance agency capacity to evaluate their PPCE initiatives.

We invite others to use the toolkit to support their evaluation of community engagement activities. Download the toolkit here.

Project last updated September 30, 2024.