C. Summary

Several lessons were learned both from the struggles faced by state and local stakeholders and their accomplishments. To summarize, other states and localities might consider the following in their efforts to facilitate consumer involvement.

1. Identify professional leaders who want and value consumer involvement. Their leadership can set a tone of commitment to involving consumers and help sustain efforts over time.

2. Involve community leaders who can help inform and support efforts to engage members of their community. Sites reached out both to those involved with formalized networks such as Parent/Teacher Organizations or Urban League neighborhood associations, as well as those known more informally within their community (e.g., long-time residents, community elders). They also sought to involve those at local gathering places such as community centers, restaurants and stores.

3. Broaden the array of consumers who are involved. Planning bodies should not simply include consumers who seek to participate or those who are recognizable as leaders, but should also reach out to those not traditionally included in planning and monitoring efforts. This should include those who have received child welfare services.

4. Train both professionals and consumers in needed skills. Sites provided professionals with training in identifying and eliminating cultural barriers and negative stereotypes, facilitation skills and orientation in asset-based approaches. Consumers received training in leadership and public speaking skills.

5. Avoid tokenism. Methods include forming a consumer group that elects its own representatives to a planning or governing body; and/or including several consumers in a group rather than just one or two.

6. Provide concrete support for participating. Support in the form of transportation, child care and/or stipends for consumers should be provided.

7. Select meeting times and locations that are accessible and convenient to consumers. In order to accommodate consumers, meetings can be held during evenings and weekends, or working lunches can be arranged. Sites preferred meeting in community centers, schools and public libraries because these locations were familiar to consumers, non-stigmatizing and generally accessible by public transportation.

8. Provide a welcoming environment. Consumers can sense when they are merely tokens and when their opinions are valued. Group facilitators should work to insure that the environment is welcoming in a number of ways. Sites invited more than just one-or-two consumers, matched them with mentors and insured that meeting agendas explicitly defined time for consumers to provide input.

9. Define essential group roles for consumers. In order to emphasize the active role consumers are to play in a group, tasks such as collecting information from their community, networking with other community members or reviewing proposals from service providers should be assigned to them early in the group’s formation.

10. Establish ground rules for meetings. Ground rules might ensure that all participants have the opportunity to speak and be listened to, or that all acronyms and bureaucratic language be explained. All participants should be involved in establishing and agreeing to these rules.

11. Expand the concept of sustained involvement. Sustained involvement should not be defined as a perfect attendance record. Allow people to cycle in and out of the group depending on their life circumstances and interests. Look for other roles or discrete activities that don’t require frequent or ongoing attendance. Assign a group member to keep in touch with those that don’t attend a meeting so that they can easily re-enter the group.

12. Communicate frequently. Contact meeting participants beforehand to remind them of the meeting time and location, and ask if they require assistance in order to attend. Provide informational packets to keep them informed about what is planned for discussion.

13. Continue to look for new ways to include consumers. Sites learned that even if consumer involvement in initial planning was not completely successful, subsequent activities that could benefit from consumer involvement—such as running support groups—arose at other stages of the planning or program implementation process.

In conclusion, this paper provides insights into the lessons learned by sites as they struggled with the difficult concept of involving consumers. As reflected in the study sites, it is probably not possible for an agency to undertake all of these. Given the scope and context of individual initiatives, some of these will be easier to carry out than others. However, those activities and processes that are achievable can serve as a basis for undertaking those that are more challenging and complex. The ideas presented in this paper should be used to stimulate and challenge stakeholders to develop their own strategies and approaches to involving consumers.