Community Engagement

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The Public Policy Center's work in public engagement is focused on helping policymakers, community organizations, and individuals make informed decisions based on data and research. Researchers focus on a variety of topics, including: institutional trust and confidence, dispute resolution, public perceptions of new technologies, environment and natural resources policy, and community improvements.

Center staff are engaged in multiple projects facilitating research related to public engagement and behavioral aspects relating to various aspects of environmental policy. A key area of Center consultation and research involves strategies to promote public engagement in governmental and policy issues. Recent projects include:

Lincoln Vital Signs & Prosper Lincoln

In collaboration with the Lincoln Community Foundation (LCF) and various community partners, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center (NUPPC) produces Lincoln Vital Signs, including a recent edition focusing on Race & Equity. Publicly available data is used to assess the challenges and opportunities facing the Lincoln community. The NUPPC gathers, analyzes, and creates visualizations of this data to share on the Lincoln Vital Signs interactive website, which shows how the Lincoln community is changing over time. Learn more by visiting the Lincoln Vital Signs website.

The findings of the Lincoln Vital Signs report inform the Prosper Lincoln Initiative. The NUPPC occupies a central and strategic role in visioning and implementing the initiative, which brings together leaders from across the community to create system change in the following five areas: early childhood, innovative workforce, strong neighborhoods, affordable housing, and civic investments. Learn more by visiting the Prosper Lincoln website.

Age-Friendly Lincoln

Lincoln’s fastest growing population is those ages 65 and older. To learn of the population’s needs as they age, the University of the Nebraska Public Policy Center (NUPPC) lead conversations with residents of all ages in the Lincoln community in partnership with Aging Partners & the City of Lincoln. The NUPPC co-hosted eight community listening sessions with Aging Partners across Lincoln to gather feedback about how to be an Age-Friendly Community – whether that’s improved transportation, accessible parks, improved healthcare access, food security, or expanded senior housing options. Residents who spoke Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and Spanish participated in these sessions. The NUPPC compiled this input and co-created an action plan of age-friendly efforts to be implemented in Lincoln’s near future.

Livestock Risk Management Program Evaluation

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center (NUPPC) provides evaluation services to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics to assess current outcome measures related to the Livestock Risk Management Education program. The Livestock Risk Management Education Program holds workshop series across Nebraska to share the latest insurance options and risk management information for livestock producers. Building off the existing post-program survey, the NUPPC evaluation team measures long-term changes in Nebraska livestock producers’ behavior through a follow up survey and voluntary phone interviews.

Recycling Feasibility Study

Much of the garbage that the Lincoln community creates (plastic bottles, metal cans, newspapers, junk mail and cardboard) is readily recyclable. In collaboration with the City of Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center conducted a feasibility study to help understand how other comparable cities achieved their multi-family housing recycling mandates. More specifically, this includes studying the processes used, lessons learned, successes/challenges, and outcomes. The project aims to increase awareness of the amount of food wasted, increase recycling of readily recyclable materials, enhance public awareness of resource recovery, and promote behavior change regarding food waste and resource recovery and its impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The overall goal of the project is improved food and recycling waste diversion from the municipally run Bluff Road Landfill.

Services

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Conference & Training Facilitation

For many of our active projects, our staff plan and execute conferences, workshops, and seminars of all sizes, virtual and in-person. This includes event management, technology recommendations, graphic design, communications, and accommodations for in-person and remote-hosted events. Additionally, staff are experienced in managing all logistics for virtual and in-person events. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is an approved continuing education sponsor through the American Psychological Association (APA). This means we can facilitate psychologists’ access to continuing education that meets APA standards.

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Grant Development & Management

We pursue and manage funding opportunities to support policy-related initiatives. Center researchers garner both public and private funding at the local, state, and national levels for applied and translational research grants. We work closely with partners to identify funding opportunities, develop grant and contract proposal narratives, create budgets and timelines, execute agreements, manage grant funds in accordance with funder requirements, and submit required fiscal and programmatic reporting.

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Program Design and Evaluation

Center research staff routinely conduct program evaluations in partnership with stakeholders to define questions, plan activities, interpret results, and use findings to recommend and implement changes. We use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods techniques appropriate to the project. Our programmatic capabilities include survey design, interviews, focus groups, mapping geographic data, overall data analysis, and report preparation.

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Project Management, Strategic Planning & Consulting

Our researchers bring high-level management expertise to projects for all kinds of organizations. We bring research-based insights to executive decision-making, develop organizational structures to achieve desired results; assist with communication planning, agenda setting and creating necessary informational materials; implement research plans; and guide open communication among stakeholders. Our researchers are trained in facilitation and regularly lead stakeholders through strategic planning, problem definition, and consensus-building, as well as discovering organizational priorities, setting goals, and creating action plans.

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Scholarly Research

Our approach is rooted in academic-oriented inquiry and investigation. We provide basic research products for partners such as high-quality and easy-to-understand literature reviews, white papers, and briefing papers. Our researchers come from diverse disciplines, including: Business, Economics, Family and Consumer Sciences, Law, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. 

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Stakeholder Engagement & Outreach

We work with stakeholders to design and execute customized frameworks. This includes determining the breadth, length, location, and timing of facilitated events; identifying participants; collecting data from participants throughout the planning or engagement process; creating opportunities for feedback and debriefing; and producing draft and final products based on results. In addition, many of our staff consult with outside organizations and conduct professional presentations on a variety of issues.