Participants discussed life in Mississippi, the challenges they faced, and why some people struggle while others thrive. They used that contact to invite people to the listening session. To get people to attend, Empower identified a very active member of each of those communities. Participants can include parents, business owners, single moms, college students, retirees, and low-income families.Įmpower Mississippi has held two listening sessions in high poverty areas in their state. It’s all about getting people from all walks of life into a room to have an informal conversation. Then we can see whether our policies are a match for it.” What do listening sessions look like? These sessions enable state think tanks to start with the people they are trying to help, and then figure out the solution.Ĭallen added: “Before we assemble policy ideas and reforms, let’s have conversations with people we want to impact, and determine what their real challenges are. Listening sessions, on the other hand, do the opposite-they are a way to reverse that process. State think tanks will start with these solutions and then find people in their state who benefit from those ideas. Organizations think they have good policy ideas, such as advancing Education Savings Accounts, reforming job licensing, or removing certificate-of-need laws. ![]() So often state think tanks start the work they do-including research, campaigns, and initiatives-with solutions first. ![]() The sessions give IRG valuable information about what Wisconsin residents care about-and what policy issues those residents want addressed. In Wisconsin, the Institute for Reforming Government started to conduct listening sessions to see if state government was being responsive to the needs of its citizens. Not that they weren’t good policies or issues that we didn’t think were important-our issues just weren’t resonating with the people we were supposed to represent.”īeacon launched a listening tour to understand what Tennesseans cared about, what problems they faced in their everyday life, and the barriers preventing them from pursuing the American Dream. Mark Cunningham, Beacon’s vice president of strategy and communications, explained: “We had a feeling the polices we were working on didn’t really fit with what the people of Tennessee cared about. The Beacon Center in Tennessee conducted listening sessions to see if the policy issues they pursued were the same issues that the people in their state cared about. Why are state think tanks conducting listening sessions? ![]() Listening sessionsare events that bring people within a state or community together to discuss the challenges they face in their everyday life. Empower Mississippi launched a new initiative called listening sessions. This group empowered Callen to try something new. ![]() All of whom had been running listening sessions across their states to learn what people really felt and thought. What if the reforms his organization works on aren’t going to change lives like he thinks they are? What if he looked back on the work that he and the staff at Empower spent their lives doing, and while they had policy wins, they couldn’t point to real people whose lives were changed?Īt the same time, Grant had been working with, and learning from, groups like the Beacon Center, Institute for Reforming Government, and Georgia Center for Opportunity. As head of Empower Mississippi for more than eight years, Grant has seen his organization advance big wins over the years, including helping the state lower the income tax, reform its broken criminal justice system, and expand education options for Mississippi families.īut one day Grant had an unnerving thought. Grant Callen is the founder and CEO of one of these think tanks in Jackson, Mississippi. Each day, in the halls, meeting rooms, and offices of state think tanks across the country, policy experts discuss reforms that will improve the lives and livelihoods of the people in their communities.
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