Engaging Citizens About Economic Development

This is an issue that I am working on in one of my consulting projects. In simple terms, citizens need to be engaged in the economic development process in a more meaningful way than they currently are. Why? Because citizens are very powerful economic actors in society.

Think of the issue this way. Citizens play five major roles in the economy: 1) consumer; 2) employee; 3) business owner, manager, entrepreneur; 4) voter; and 5) taxpayer.

Two-thirds of U.S. GDP is comprised of consumer spending. The national Presidential election this November will be determined by how the two candidates are viewed as economic stewards for our nation.

Basically, I find that most EDOs give little to no attention to the issue of citizen involvement and engagement in their work. Yes, some do. Most do not.

Is this an easy issue to deal with? No. In fact, it may be one of the hardest challenges we face in our field. The public is not easy to deal with...but we must.

I am thinking along two tracks about this issue: 1) how we can gain better citizen involvement, support, inputs, and activism around the "community economic agenda"; and 2) how we can help citizens choose better personal economic futures for themselves and their families. We are not equipping people with the tools to accomplish either. In many ways, this is a job that should start in the third grade of people's educational life.

And our workforce development and educational allies need to come to the table on this one. They need to do a better job in this area as well.

Any thoughts on this one?