Making room for citizens at the public policy table.

Citizen engagement is a critical factor in determining whether devolution, which shifts responsibility for decision-making from the federal to state and local levels, is a success. Devolved policies and decisions will be more effective when the community members they affect are involved in making them. This article presents six lessons from a citizen-focused project conducted in two communities over two years on what it takes to get and keep citizens involved in the policy process. This project showed that, when applied, these lessons will inspire community members to get involved, create the relationships needed to sustain their involvement over time, and build their capacity to understand and problem solve around complex policy issues.