An Interview With Chris Gates
Executive Director of the
Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE)
(Interview conducted by Mike Knepler)
Chris Gates was the keynote speaker at a regional summit sponsored by the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement in April, 2009.
He has been executive director of the Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) since June 2006 and was a member of the civic engagement working group of President Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
He was previously president of the National Civic League and is a national leader and frequent speaker on topics relating to the state of our democracy, the interaction between citizens and government, and innovative community problem solving.
You can learn more about PACE at www.pacefunders.org.
Q: How do you define civic engagement?Civic engagement is more than just attending a meeting or a public hearing. It's not a passive concept; it's an active concept. It's when people actively engage in their neighborhood or community either by doing something or really engaging in the thinking around doing something that allows them to create some positive change. It's different than volunteering. It's just not the act of helping out. The concept of engagement is really an active verb. It means that you're really thinking it through. Different people call it different things. Part of it is thinking strategically about what needs to be done and (determining) what are the most pressing issues where can you best make a difference. It's thinking about those kinds of things.
Q: What advice would you give Hampton Roads for having productive and enjoyable experiences in civic engagement?
One of the things we know is that community life lends itself to shared-value solutions, that in the end there really are not opposing views. Everyone wants good schools and low crime and no litter and no horn-honking and good jobs. So, our definitions of community are really reflective of a shared set of values about what makes a good community and yet, I don't think we have a lot of civic capacity in place for people to get to those shared-value solutions. So, I think in creating an organization like this they're really putting themselves in a position to unlock potential in the community. It's not that they're going to have to convince people they have a shared definition of what a desired future looks like, it's that they'll be giving them a tool they can use to more easily get there and move forward.
Q: Why should citizens care, especially in comparison with major problems in the nation's economy and issues such as health care and rising joblessness?
We have collectively decided as a country that we don't want a government that has the power to unilaterally solve all of society's problems and if that's the case -- and Obama and the trillion-dollar bailout package sort of brings that issue to the fore a little bit -- I think, in general people have concluded that they don't want a government that serves as father figure to society, that one of the things that goes on in America is we decide we want to play a role in our own community's decision making. So, in my mind, there's not much debate in this country about not having a government powerful enough to unilaterally solve all of society's problems. The corollary must then mean that citizens, governments, nonprofits, churches and neighborhood groups are all going to have to jump in and play a role in that process as well.
Q: You're talking about long-entrenched traditions.
Yes, talking about going back to our roots. De Tocqueville talked about associational life in America and one of the things that made civic life unique in America was we had this notion of people jumping in and getting things done, helping each other solve problems, pitching in with each other. We sort of got off that track at some point in the mid-1900s and moved in a different direction. At some level, this has all been about almost a self-correction.
Q: What is the Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement and why was it started up?
It's a learning collaborative of foundations committed to issues of democratic renewal and civic engagement. The Council on Foundations has what are called affinity groups. They are learning collaboratives of like-mind funders who create organizations to learn from each other, share information, both within their own organizations and in the field of philanthropy in general, to try and convince more people to fund in that area. PACE is the first affinity group of the Council on Foundations that is a collection of funders who are committed to civic engagement and democratic renewal. So, (we do) a lot of work helping the funders who work in this area share their own information, gathering information on their behalf, sharing information with the field of philanthropy more broadly stated.
Q: Can you elaborate a little more on how civic engagement helps solve community problems vs. some of the traditional ways, such as just attending a meeting, petitioning, even voting?
It's a more empowered model of what some people call self-governance, where government is the convener and the owner of the public agenda but they reach out to the private sector and the nonprofit sector and individual citizens to help them play a role in getting things done in society. As (Common Cause founder) John Gardner, one of my mentors, used to say, communities could never reach their potentials if citizens thought their only commitment to their community was to vote every two years. You've got to find ways to increase that notion of commitment.
Q: How interested is President Obama in civic engagement and how is he expressing that interest? Have you spoken with him about civic engagement?
Not spoken with him about it, but I was on the civic engagement working group of the campaign, and we met the Saturday after the election to talk about the civic engagement agenda of the administration. And they just named a director of civic engagement who will work in the White House and they’re also in the process of putting together a White House Office on Social Innovation, which will be interesting to see where they go with that. So, there has been a fair amount of work going on.
Q: Are you able to read into it any on where the president wants to go with civic engagement?
I was trying to help them do some of the work during the transition. They're still trying to figure out the details of what the White House Office of Social Innovation is going to look like and what the Office of Civic Engagement is going to look like as well.
Q: A lot of political analysts credit the way Obama used the new media -- especially the social networking on the Internet -- to help win the presidency. What is the role, or potential role, for the new media in using civic engagement to solve problems at the community level?
They (the White House) are clearly very committed to using new models of communication and social networking. That's a big piece, I think, of what the director of citizen participation is going to focus on for the administration. The person they've named to that position is a former director at Google (Katie Jacobs Stanton), and I think they are going to be very focused on that question about how they can use new communication tools.
Q: What should localities be thinking of in these terms and how do you see the potential at the local level to use the new media, social networking to solve community problems?
One of the lessons that's going to be very clear is, that the old ways of doing business probably aren't going to work anymore and there's lots of conversations about how do we tap into this new cadre of voters and volunteers. The truth is for people in government, campaigns and the nonprofit world, one of the things that probably happened with those folks is their expectations have changed about how they expect to be interacted with. I think it's going put pressure on campaigns, local governments and nonprofit organizations to creatively find ways to change the way they do business internally, because it won't work anymore to say "We're going to have a separate governance structure and then we'll ask volunteers to get involved and help out."
One of absolute things that got changed in this campaign was lines that divided volunteers from policy makers have been absolutely squashed flat and there's now expectation on the part of a lot of people that if they are going to be involved in something, they can help shape it as well. I think it’s going to be an interesting process, to see the nonprofit sector try and move in that direction, to see local government move in that direction, to see campaigns and politics move in that direction.
Q: What will be the role of the old, traditional media in civic engagement?
The traditional media is really struggling to find a direction and a home, and this in some way gives the traditional media a little bit of roadmap or clue about how you find a way out of the current dilemma those folks find themselves in. This shows that if you were to make some changes and do things in different way, what you might be able to accomplish, what you might be able to get done.
Q: How can a new group like the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement attract citizens as well as officials from governmental agencies and local institutions? This is its first public event. How can they start getting traction and getting people involved?
There's a general hunger in communities for what we call civic space or safe space. There are lots of places where people can go to disagree with each other but not many places where people can go to find ways to come together and identify issues of shared concern or shared passion. My sense is that in communities that have laid this approach out, there's a hunger for it and people in government understand if it's put together correctly, if it's done right, then it's not a threat to their power or authority, that it actually augments their ability to solve problems and get things done. In the places I've seen where it plays out, it's really been viewed as a positive contribution to the community's processes because people are really looking for that safe space or that civic space where they can come together and talk about issues and talk about shared concerns and do it in a way that feels safe and is not based on having an argument where somebody wins and somebody loses.
Q: Are the responsibilities different for citizens and government officials who will commit to civic engagement?
It's important to recognize that civic engagement takes lots of different forms. Some of it really involves citizens simply doing more, becoming more involved, becoming more engaged, a more muscular definition of what it means to be a citizen, not a passive definition. Some of it may not involve government at all. The neighborhood watch movement is an example of programs that have had the impact of lowering crime rates all over the country, but it really resulted from citizens making social compacts with each other and agreeing, in essence, to look out for each other. That was the point to the whole neighborhood watch movement, it was about citizens deciding they were going to play a more active role in the public safety of their own community and so, some of it isn't necessarily about a negotiation between government and citizens.
Q: You've mentioned you've been finding some good examples around the country. Can you discuss some of those?
We're about to publish a white paper that will highlight some of the new forms of civic engagement that are being used by governments around the country that are going to be really interesting for people to look at some of the different models being used to engage people in conversations.
Q: Can you give examples of some of the problems that have been solved through civic engagement?
Most people talk and think in terms of hard outcomes and soft outcomes. The hard outcomes are different in every community, whether it's solving a housing problem, or a traffic problem, or a growth-and-development problem or a crime problem. That's different depending on the circumstances of that community. But the soft outcomes are in some ways almost more important in that communities learn a different way to have a conversation, they learn to debate different perspectives, they learn different way to do dispute resolution, they learn a different way to lead, they learn a different way to listen to each other, they model different kinds of problem-solving behavior. In some ways, the most important piece of this is that it helps communities change their norms in how they do business.
Q: How they have been around long enough to say they are really changing norms, that it's starting to get below the surface, that it's becoming almost a reflex in a way a community tries to address something?
It's a change in the way a community does business. It's a change in the way they listen, they lead, they live. All of those things change when you can find ways to increase this kind of activity.
Q: What turns non-believers into believers?
I think words can capture people's interest, but in the end it's only deeds that change their minds. So, you can talk about it a lot but until people really see that they're really going to be listened to, that their words are going to matter, or that they can make a difference if they choose to roll up their sleeves and get involved. People have to see it to believe it. You use the words to bring people to the table but in the end people need to see some evidence that they are really being heard, some level of efficacy.
Q: Are funders beginning to see the deeds, too, and taking more notice?
Certainly the ones in this coalition do, but we would love to see more funders decide that this work is a priority. It would be nice to see more funders take this on as an area of real concern, and where they need to focus their time, energy and resources. It's a difficult area for a lot of funders to get involved in because democracy is a messy sport and so, if your default setting is risk-averse, then it's easy to find reasons to avoid getting involved in this kind of work.
Q: What is another way to look at the connection between philanthropy and civic engagement? Is there a way for funders to see this as work in their own interest?
Part of the case that we make is that whether the main point of your funding is education or the arts, or whatever it is, if democracy isn't functioning well, you'll never be able to get to the issue that concerns you. We make the case that even if democracy and citizenship and community are not on the formal list of things that you fund and things that you do, then even if you don't think about doing the work of democracy, it's worth investing some of your time and resources in that process.
Q: Can you describe some examples?
Education is an example. If you dig in a little bit, you'll discover that one of the frustrations is that it's difficult to change education policy so it's difficult to get people to pay attention to those types of issues. So, the case we would make to that funder would be that if education is your issue, then democracy has got to be one of your concerns as well.
Q: What direction do you see civic engagement going on national and local levels this year?
We live in a moment of possibility, so I have no idea. But a lot of people view it as a time to promote new ideas and to try new things, so certainly in the field of civic engagement we want to be there along with the nonprofit organizations that do this kind of work, to support that.
Q: Any drawbacks to using civic engagement?
That would be somebody else's job to worry about that. I work the other side of the street there.
Q: Anything else you'd like to say to the Hampton Roads community?
Virginia has got a bit of history around this work, that it's appropriate that it will be taking place there. The timing is also good in the sense that if feels like there's a little bit of a fresh start in country, that people are thinking anew of how to get things done and how to engage. I think the timing is perfect and hopefully people will come with a very open mind about what their potential is.
(Mike Knepler is a journalist, freelance writer and longtime observer of the civic life of Hampton Roads and can be contacted at knep@msn.com. )
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