Tapping Community Experience Gathering Community Stories Communities for a Lifetime Philip B. Stafford, Ph.D. Director, Center on Aging & Community, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community

“Participation… provides a collaborative process by which community inhabitants reach common goals, engage in collective decisions, and create places, and these places, in turn, serve as material expressions of their collective efforts.” Feldman, Roberta M. & Westphal, Lynne M Sustaining human settlement: A challenge for the new millennium. Great Britain: Urban International Press.

Why participation? Counter decline in civic engagement. Broaden accountability. People need to know fully the process and how they fit in. Public “input” meetings alone are unsatisfactory.

Why participation? Diverse public suggests diverse modes of learning & interpretation. The people need tools to be on an equal plane with holders of power. Builds the democracy. Help frame issues.

Criteria for selecting techniques: What is your desired outcome? What kind of product do you need? How much time do you have? What will it cost? How diverse is the group of participants you hope to attract?

How many participants do you want to include? Will you use experts/paid facilitators? Is the technique adaptable for diverse participants? What kind of engagement will be expected of participants? Criteria for selecting techniques:

Potential Outcomes Understanding the daily experiences & lifeworld of target groups. For understanding the impact of programs and services on the daily lives of those for whom such services are intended. For discovering and revealing to a wider audience the needs, skills, talents and assets of individuals and groups who might otherwise be invisible to mainstream public and persons in power.

Potential Outcomes For gathering and organizing diverse individuals and groups into processes designed to create a shared vision of a better future. For simply helping a community learn about itself.

Who knows about the issue? Who cares about it? Who can do something about it? Stakeholders Community Change

Participation Toolkit Focus Groups Charrettes Mapmaking Guided Visualization Walk around the block Writing Workshops Surveys Cartooning Graffiti Wall Visual Arts Oral history

Adult Day Center Collage Project “You don’t have to do anything special on a porch. You can do what we did…talked. That’s enough!” Bertha DeBoer,age 100

Waldron Center Mural Project - Graffiti Wall

“Experiencing Place” Creative Writing Workshops

“And there are lots of old tombstones that have fallen over so I pick them up and brush them off with my hand.”, Hillary Jane Foreman-Hunter Binford Elementary

Experiencing Place Authors

From data to information/knowledge “We’d buy half a loaf of bread if somebody offered it to us.” “When I cross a busy street I start to limp so cars will pay attention.”

My home?... It’s “my wife, my kitchen with big bay window, history with children at home, the smell of cut grass.” “I put my empty water jugs on the porch rail when I see the neighbors come home.”

“I can just walk across the street (to the community center)… I have a choice. When I get to the steps, if I feel I am too tired, I may walk around and…take the elevator.”

From Information to Knowledge Home as a repository of meaning Home as a financial cushion Home as a power base Home as an aesthetic, reflection of self Home as a practical support Home as a node in a social network

Learning The intangibles matter Movement Beauty Laughter Memory Choice

Tapping Community Experience Gathering Community Stories Philip B. Stafford, Ph.D. Director, Center on Aging and Community Indiana Institute on Disability and Community Indiana University 2853 East Tenth, Bloomington, IN