Each year communities and groups across Iowa collectively develop thousands of plans. Prepared by Northeast Iowa RC&D, this series provides strategies from their experience that will help transform your plan from a cookie cutter document that sits on a shelf to an action orientated guide for the future.

The authors of “Equality and Equity in Deliberation: Introduction to the Special Issue” state that inclusion is a foundation of deliberative democracy. But should programs focus on equity or equality in their process of dialogue and deliberation?

What does it take to not just listen to youth, but to involve this in the planning and visioning stages of a project? Involving young people in a coalition, and getting youth to come to events and have their voice be heard, requires reflection on a wide range of issues. This resource is helpfully organized as a series of challenges that are all paired with specific strategies to employ. Below are five of those challenges with one sample strategy. Notice that engaging youth often requires you to rethink your own vision, priorities, and assumptions.