Creative Social Innovation: Using Citizen Participation to Drive Idea Contests
We’ve written a lot about finding participants for your idea contests. Often, you want to find as many participants from different backgrounds for your competitions. After all, the benefit of going on-line is being able to include anyone from anywhere with an internet connection.
But what if your idea competition fits in a niche?
What if you are holding an idea competition for a specific group of people. For example, a search for ways to get young people more involved in your local government. You may not want to reach out to communities around the world because, the group that will be affected by this initiative, are the youth living in your city. As much as Lucy from Canada might have some great ideas, you are looking for things that resonate with the young people in Islington, not young people worldwide.
If your project is specific, finding the right people to take part is more important than the amount of people who show up.
This may not be as easy as it sounds.The reason a project may center around a specific group, is because they are hard to reach. Or maybe they are particularly busy. If you are looking for ways to support single parents, they will not have a lot of time on their hands to suggest project ideas for you. So let’s take a look at how you can encourage people to participate:
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Let them know the time commitment can be as big or small as they want it to be. There is space for everyone to take part.
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Show them how it will benefit them personally.
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Show them how it will impact the community at large, making your town a better place to live.
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Offer a monetary incentive if you can! This shouldn’t be the primary motivator but can help as a way to thank your participants.
Remember that in a successful idea contest all sorts of participants are needed. While it is necessary to have some people submit the ideas, your team can help with this. In a community engagement process, you need to get feedback, as well as ideas. It doesn’t matter so much who comes up with the ideas, but rather who is empowered by the process. Here are some different roles a community member could play:
-Idea generator
A more time-intensive role, this person is passionate about the challenge and has a solution they want to put to the test.
-Feedback provider
This person cares about the issue and how the problem is solved. They want to help idea generators define and refine their ideas and help the judges choose the best option.
-Voter
This is the least time intensive role. This person wants to have an active role in the community but has little time to give. Yet, the voters are invaluable because it tells the judges how the community feels about each idea.
-Expert judge
There will be at least one expert judge in your community. Whether they have a special skill or are part of your target group, asking someone to be a judge, is a great way to involve them in the process.
-Support of implementation
There may be people in the group who thrive when getting their hands dirty rather than planning ideas. Your community is filled with people with different skills and interests. Once the idea is chosen, who can you reach out to help you implement it?
Idea competitions can be a great way to engage your citizens in meaningful dialog about the community. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you already know the basics of social innovation. Take those ground rules and use them to help democratize the projects you run in your community.
To get more in depth about idea contests and citizen participation, check out these pages:
