--About the CPP--

The CPP's mission is to expand the knowledge and practice of public participation among community members, public participation practitioners, scholars, and public sector officials, managers, and staff through training, education, research, evaluation, and communication and information services.

The CPP was founded in 2000 as a collaborative partnership between the Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) at Portland State University and the Cascade Chapter of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). It is now guided by a unique and diverse 34-member steering committee comprised of community members, professional public participation practitioners, public sector managers and staff, and academicians.

The CPP is supported by and collaborates with a wide range of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to implement its programs and projects.

CPP goals:

1. Increase understanding of public participation practices through research, education, training, evaluation, and information sharing.
2. Create and support access to activities, information, and education that fosters participation in public decision making in government and civic life.
3. Cultivate among all sectors of the community the trusting and cooperative relationships that make democracy work.
4. Model a vision of democratic leadership through our unique participatory governance structure of community activists, public sector managers and staff, scholars, and public participation practitioners.
5. Maintain a focus on cultivating our regional network while also building worldwide collaborative relationships with other people interested in promoting democratic participation.

Our Philosophy

Democracy is governance by the people. It promotes justice, liberty, and equality for all members of the community.

Democracy is more than particular kinds of political representation, laws, policies, educational structures, administrative bureaucracies, and other institutional arrangements. While these provide support for democratic governance, democracy is actually realized through everyday civic interactions and relationships among community members. It is these interactions and relationships that build the civic capacity out of which democracy can be practiced. Public participation is, therefore, the heart and soul of democratic governance. Public participation creates and re-creates democracy on a daily basis.

Good democratic public participation engages people in making the governance decisions that will affect their communities and their lives. It is a challenge, however, to engage competing and diverse opinions and perspectives, and decide on a course of action in an equitable, just, and efficient manner. Education, training, access to information, and opportunities to participate are the basic tools necessary to empower all members of a community to constructively participate in coming to public judgment.