Government ‘takes a shot’ at inviting citizen input

Study Circles Resource Center helps organize national deliberation on pandemic flu vaccine policy

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February 27, 2006 | | Pomfret, Connecticut

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The federal government has never been known for seeking citizen input on major public policy decisions. But that’s exactly what happened recently when the Centers for Disease Control teamed with several partners – including the Study Circles Resource Center – to produce the Public Engagement Pilot Project on Pandemic Influenza, or PEPPPI.

This pioneering citizen-engagement effort comes at a time when the threat of pandemic flu is a top concern for Americans. An account of the PEPPPI process is now available on the SCRC website.

The story details how Dr. Roger Bernier, a CDC researcher, worked with SCRC senior associates Matt Leighninger and Jon Abercrombie plus representatives from the Institute of Medicine, the National Vaccine Information Center, The Keystone Center, the National Institutes of Health, and 10 other agencies and organizations to create a public dialogue on vaccine policy.

The process included two meetings of national stakeholders in vaccine policy; a daylong deliberation by a diverse group of more than 100 Atlanta-area residents; and sessions in three other states – Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Oregon – where citizens had opportunities to comment on the Atlanta citizens’ findings and the stakeholders’ reports. In the end, the citizens and stakeholders group agreed that “assuring the functioning of society” should be the top immunization goal, followed by reducing individual deaths and hospitalizations due to influenza.

“Some of the (government) officials were skeptical about whether citizens could say anything intelligent and helpful, so the fact that the citizens and experts came to many of the same conclusions was big news,” SCRC’s Leighninger said. He added that while the federal government has frequently solicited citizen input in local decisions (environmental impact statements, for example), the PEPPPI represents one of the few instances where at-large citizens were involved in helping shape policy for a national issue.

Martha L. McCoy, SCRC executive director, said that while the center primarily focuses its resources on building local democracy as a strategy for strengthening national democracy, “We welcomed this project as an opportunity to apply processes we’ve developed at the local level to a national issue.”

The Study Circles Resource Center is the primary project of The Paul. J. Aicher Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. SCRC has helped more than 400 communities develop their own ability to solve problems by bringing people together in dialogue across divides of race, income, age, and political viewpoints.