Conclusion

Americans’ declining institutional trust can be seized as an opportunity for change. Policymakers, advocates, and residents themselves can rethink the ways that democratic institutions respond to communities’ needs. Models that make government more effective, responsive, and inclusive—such as investments in physical spaces to foster social capital growth and human-centered design to improve services—can successfully combine engagement ideals with twenty-first century realities.

Rebuild offers a particularly illustrative case of what such models can look like, with multiple lessons. First, at a time where municipalities see rising deficits, it suggests a way that localities can make the most of foundation investments and find new ways to complement revenue. Second, Rebuild is an exciting, ambitiously large-scale program that shows how devolving responsibility to residents can work, if they are given the resources necessary for execution and if projects are reflective of their needs. Third, large projects have many interlocking components and take time to execute. In a project like Rebuild, which seeks to achieve a lot—economic revitalization, workforce training and diversification, and infrastructure repairs—these interlocking components and their respective stakeholders are dynamics that funders, government officials, advocates, and residents must grapple with together.

Models that make government more effective, responsive, and inclusive can successfully combine engagement ideals with twenty-first century realities.

The Design Lab is an example of what deploying cutting edge tools can look like, including evidenced-based decision-making and human-centered design. The Lab’s efforts to implement change within government and promote experimentation to empower both residents and public officials in the policy process shows that government does not have to be an inherently rigid institution. The Lab’s work has led to more effective policy—like making sure residents enroll in property tax payment assistance programs so that they are able to keep their homes, or making the intake process more humane for those who are homeless.

The case studies and the subsequent recommendations in this paper have their limitations, of course. Constraints on the amount of time we had to interview Philadelphia residents who have been participating in Rebuild, since the project is still in its initial phase; the number of city officials who were willing to be interviewed on and off the record; and the scope of our analysis limited our work to examining processes rather than results. This is why research into and investment in understanding experimental institutional structures like Rebuild and the Design Lab are essential.

Measuring the success of these changes on the policy process is difficult; quantifying the impact that participating in community engagement programs like Rebuild and the Design Lab may have on citizens themselves is nearly impossible. But that does not make it any less worthwhile. As Harvard political science professor Jane Mansbridge explained, “participation does make better citizens… The kinds of subtle changes in character that come about, slowly, from active, powerful participation in democratic decisions cannot easily be measured with the blunt instruments of social science. Those who have actively participated in democratic governance, however, often feel that the experience has changed them.”¹

Through the institutionalization of reforms, civic engagement can enhance the fabric of communal life and have lasting benefits for those inside and outside of public service.

In an environment characterized by instant news, social media, and on-demand living, the slow changes which come about from civic engagement can be difficult to believe in or measure. Not every effort to promote civic engagement will be a large, news-grabbing project such as the ones in Philadelphia, but the behind-the-scenes, day-to-day work of making governance equitable and inclusive can make communities more resilient and responsive.