The William D. Ruckelshaus Center is an impartial resource for collaborative problem solving in the State of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. We are dedicated to assisting public, private, non-profit, tribal, and community leaders in their efforts to build consensus around complex public policy issues. We also build problem-solving capacity by helping individuals and organizations better understand, initiate, and lead collaborative public policy efforts. If you have questions about our work, or a potential project, please contact us!
Consultation
A free consultation can help determine whether a collaborative process fits your needs. Questions we ask include:
Who needs to be involved? Are they willing to participate?
Has anyone tried to resolve the situation in the past? What was the outcome?
Does the situation affect people in the State of Washington or the Pacific Northwest?
What would you hope to achieve with a collaborative process?
What is your estimated time frame? What are your funding options?
Assessment
An assessment can be used to explore the challenges, opportunities, and relationships relevant to your circumstances. For example, a situation assessment can be used to determine whether a collaborative process is appropriate. A situation assessment is a multi-stage process that uses background research and semi-structured interviews to recommend a path forward. To learn more about the Center’s approach, please see this overview (PDF).
Process Design and Facilitation
A well-designed collaborative process reflects the core values of collaborative governance – shared responsibility, mutual understanding, and inclusive decision making. Good facilitation helps teams, groups, and meetings be more productive. The Center’s experienced and impartial facilitators have a deep understanding of meeting facilitation and consensus building that helps people tackling complex problems reach collaborative solutions. Our “content-neutral” facilitators don’t take sides or make decisions for the group. Instead, they conduct open, fair, and inclusive processes to help people build sustainable agreements. They also help document those agreements in final reports.
University Expertise
People participating in a collaborative process often need technical information on a specific subject. The Center is uniquely positioned to access experts at the nation’s leading research universities. We connect real-world questions with world-class experts and translate technical information into accessible language.
For example, the Center engaged Dr. Kara Whitman of Washington State University to provide information to the Spirit Lake/Toutle-Cowlitz River Collaborative. Her knowledge of environmental science and policy was critical to helping the Collaborative address sediment buildup caused by the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Learn more about the Center’s work with the Spirit Lake/Toutle-Cowlitz River Collaborative.
Collaborative Capacity
The Center builds collaborative capacity by helping individuals and organizations better understand, initiate, and lead collaborative public policy efforts. Increasing collaborative capacity is a vital part of the Center’s vision – a future in which government leaders, policy makers, and community members routinely employ the tools of collaborative decision making to design, conduct, and implement successful public policy processes. Learn more about our ongoing work:
University Network for Collaborative Governance (UNCG)
Washington Collaborative Elected Leaders Institute (WA-CELI)