Over the last few months more than 300 mostly Akron area and Northeast Ohio residents helped identify positive actions they say are most likely to bring about improvement in the community.
The Akron Beacon Journal, Ideastream Public Media, Signal Akron and the nonprofit Fighting to Understand led the brainstorming effort, called We Can Disagree.
What people said was so informative that newsrooms and community engagement specialists across the country took note.
We’ve been invited to speak at the American Bar Association's annual convention, the National Issues Forums Network, a national coalition that promotes public deliberation, and the Intermovement Impact Project, a pro-democracy group, and helped other newsrooms consider similar exercises.
More importantly, though, for Northeast Ohio, those ideas that were generated by people trying to thrive in Northeast Ohio were used by local journalists to hold candidates accountable, design election coverage and inform candidate endorsements and polling questions.
That’s a big deal.
People were heard, and their ideas were respected by being incorporated into daily work.
Your future is our future
The elections will be over in four weeks. Local newsrooms don’t want this hard work to go to waste. Nor do funders — the American Press Institute, the Akron Community Foundation and the Akron Bar Foundation — which have invested in this effort.
So now we’re into the next phase: What do you want local newsrooms to do next?
This question will be answered in several steps:
- First, you are asked to participate in an online brainstorming exercise on the Polis app.
Post your ideas on what you want local media to do for you. You can watch as others vote on your ideas and ideas of others. We’ll see ideas rise to the top. - In an in-person community dinner and conversation, we’ll go deeper on expectations of local media. The meeting begins promptly at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 129 S. Union St., Akron.
You must register through Eventbrite. The event is free. - Journalists and a few participants will meet again later to digest what was heard in the Oct. 22 conversation.
- And, future local news coverage will incorporate community comments.
A little reflection
We've asked questions before on the pol.is app. Here is a cross-section of the ideas audience members submitted for improving the community that people of all persuasions liked the most:
- “We need leaders who we can trust to address complicated issues for all of us rather than divide us.”
- “We are concerned about jobs for the future.”
- “We need mental health care for police for their tension, PTSD, ability to engage constructively.”
- “We need to work for peace in our homes … and the world.”
That brainstorming is still ongoing. Here's the full question: “Let’s block out for a moment the issues that candidates want us to debate. Instead, thinking about you and your communities, what is needed to help people have a better life?”
To contribute to the conversation go to the Polis app by clicking here.
There are also two other discussions ongoing. Because jobs and policing were two top priorities among survey respondents, we also opened brainstorming opportunities on those topics.
Click on the following links to participate in those discussions.
- What can leaders, organizations or individuals do – or what are they already doing – to create more fulfilling jobs in Northeast Ohio that allow more of us to get ahead in life?
- What do we need to talk about that we’re not discussing to prevent and solve violent crimes in our community?
Ted Wetzel is founder and executive director of Fighting to Understand, a Northeast Ohio civic engagement nonprofit that aims to help people disagree better. ted.wetzel@fighting-to-understand.us
Doug Oplinger is a retired Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter and editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. oplingerdoug@gmail.com
