Consider the Needs of Generation Xers in Your Public Involvement Strategies
by Elaine Cogan

PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan outlines ways of involving younger people in the planning process.

There are many ways to draw citizens to public meetings and workshops. Although finding the right approach to specific planning issues is always a challenge, the basic tenet for success, applies regardless of whether we want to reach seniors, baby boomers, or Generation Xers. People will respond to an issue if they know about it and if they care about it.

It is helpful to the planning process if commission members represent a variety of community interests, and having people of various ages on the board is important. Still, the need for meaningful civic engagement in a democracy by a broad spectrum of the population is at least the same as ever, or perhaps more vital today when so many people seem turned off by government and tuned into their own affairs.

Generation Xers and their counterparts have many more ways to obtain and respond to information than their parents and grandparents. Acknowledging this reality, there are several keys to reaching and involving them in public events concerned with planning issues that may be different than trying to involve other populations.