Since it opened its doors in 1984, Consensus has used a variety of methods to fulfill its mission of putting the public in public policy.  The community created Consensus because, in 1982, major bond issues were defeated at the polls despite the support of political and civic leaders.  Representatives of various civic and leadership organizations felt the region needed an organization that could bring citizens together to address regional issues and to connect citizens with civic leaders.  They modeled Consensus on the Citizens League of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Consensus was founded on the belief that laypersons can learn about an issue and develop sensible, even innovative, ways to address it.  That doesn’t mean it is, or should be, easy.  Citizens may spend months in study and discussion.  Even when their involvement is only for an evening, citizens are asked to move past wishful thinking to consider the difficult tradeoffs that go hand-in-glove with public policy.

Consensus also believed, then and now, that it was important to bring together diverse groups of citizens, people who might never otherwise meet.  As society becomes more fragmented and discourse less civil, bridging the gaps that divide us – race/ethnicity, class, ideology, geography and age – is more important than ever.  Engaging diverse citizens produces results that are rich and reflective of our community.

Deliberation: In 2003, the Kauffman Foundation asked Consensus to serve as the home for KC Forums, which the foundation began in 2002.  Since then, working with a project team of about a dozen leading nonprofit organizations and some 25 trained moderators, Consensus has moved onto the national stage through partnerships with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and the Kettering Foundation, as well as series of forums that engaged citizens in local issues drawn from the citistates report.

Consulting:  Also in 2003, Consensus developed a business plan for earned income in its mission area of public policy and citizen engagement.  In 2005, Consensus completed a ten-month, $110,000 study and civic engagement effort for four public libraries in Iowa.  Other recent clients include the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Commission and KCResearch, a project housed at the Kansas City Public Library.

Task forces:  In the beginning, Consensus’s primary tool was the citizen task force.  Since its founding, the organization has convened citizens to study 16 issues, among them minority business development, neighborhood safety, solid waste management, urban redevelopment, and child care.  Perhaps the best known task force dealt with regional funding for culture and recreation.  Consensus, after ten years of effort, helped pass the enabling legislation in Missouri and Kansas that allowed the bi-state tax used to renovate Union Station.  
Recently, Consensus restructured the way it conducts task forces, so that citizens are engaged after the organization has developed findings, thereby using volunteer hours more effectively.  Since then, Consensus has released white papers on literacy programs in the workplace and the structure and governance of metro public libraries.

Visioning: From 1990-1992, Consensus conducted a regional visioning project called COMPASS that engaged thousands of citizens in identifying a vision for the future, that of a place where we measure our success by the quality of our children’s future.  In 1993, Consensus became the first organization to convene a community-wide future search process.  Its goal was to identify actions metro Kansas City could take to achieve the vision.  

Program incubation:  Consensus served as an incubator for projects that participants in the 1993 future search conference said were needed, such as the Promise Project and Kids Voting, which it later moved to other nonprofit organizations.  The Promise Project provided training and services that helped promote youth/adult partnerships that gave young people a role in decision making.  It moved to HarmonyNCCJ.  Kids Voting, now a project of the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, engages thousands of metro area young people in voting at polling places alongside their parents.  For more information, go to www.ymca-kc.org .

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