Our History

The Road and Rationale Leading to
Our “Fledgling” Organization
by Betsy McBride

The genesis of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement was an initiative designed and managed by Jim Babcock and the regional group - Future of Hampton Roads. Because it is broadly acknowledged that geographic regions are the “economic engines” of the future, the goal for the initiative was to look for opportunities for efficiencies that would make the Hampton Roads region as a whole, more competitive.

The search for efficiencies was conducted by sub-committees charged to explore all sorts of public service functions ranging from work-force development to marketing for tourism. While looking for methods to increase the competiveness of the region, there was a growing recognition that the most important asset for any region is its citizens. They provide for the creativity and all of the forward progress.

After consideration, the project steering committee directed a sub-committee to explore the means to increase the regions’ capacity to engage its citizens. Some of the separate localities have some resources directed to this work but most do not – at least not staff dedicated to the technical specialty of public participation and civic engagement.

A sub-committee chaired by Suzanne Puryear reviewed alternative models and recommended the founding of a regional center for civic engagement to serve both the citizens, governments and other organizations in Hampton Roads. The objective was to provide decision-makers, interest groups and other citizens with reliable, state-of-the art methods for involving citizens in collaborative and productive problem solving without duplicating the specialized staff in each community.

In practical terms, the Center’s long-term goal is to change the way that public decisions are made in Hampton Roads.

For the Center, there are multiple underlying operating assumptions:

First, that the inclusion of citizens in the public choices related to their region’s quality of life and future enhances the quality and sustainability of public decisions and supports accountability and transparency.

And second, that citizens have both rights and duties to participate in the shaping of their community and all public decision making will be improved by the informed engagement of citizens.

Lastly, these potential enhancements come from changes that occur over time. This is a new approach to public decision making and it requires a change in the relationship between citizens and government. That change will come with new experiences and new appreciation for the power of community collaboration.