The Indiana Town Halls Model
Our Mission
Indiana Town Halls (ITH) is a start-up nonpartisan nonprofit whose mission is to empower citizen engagement in democracy through interactive civic dialogue between and among inclusive groups of Hoosiers, their candidates, and elected representatives.
Our Vision
Our vision is to provide Hoosier communities with a mobile TV/web production service; an interactive web platform tailored for citizen/politician dialogue; and an event management support unit—all designed to make civic engagement central to Hoosier political culture and to help revitalize Hoosier democracy. By 2028, we aim to produce 50+ deliberative Town Hall conversations annually and make them easily accessible through a variety of media platforms.
Our Values
Our core values are that informed citizens should be empowered to influence decisions of the Legislature that affect their daily lives, and that elected official decisions should promote the interests of Hoosier working families. We believe that conflicting interests should be resolved with civility, transparency, deliberation, and consensus-building.
Our Design
The traditional town hall model is out of favor and requires a major overhaul. Our new model features:
A neutral, nonpartisan moderator - able to ensure the dialogue is civil, fact-based, and ideologically balanced.
An interactive web platform - combined with extensive use of social media - to connect citizens with politicians before, during, and after the event.
A diverse, pre-screened citizen panel to showcase civil dialogue bridging urban, rural, and cultural divides and engaging politicians directly.
A partner civic engagement network (e.g. Community-Engaged Alliance, League of Women Voters, AARP, Hoosier Action, chambers of commerce, faith-based groups, and community foundations) to promote citizen and political participation.
A statewide TV and web production unit to provide the mobile webcast production services, tools, and training needed by local town hall organizers.
A variety of town hall formats - responsive to local needs to accommodate differences in town hall locations, issues to be addressed, audience sizes, and the number of participants.
Special outreach activities to encourage participation by disengaged citizens (especially Generation Z), marginalized communities of color, and small town/rural residents.
Our Goals
Our goals for the next 3-5 years include a statewide TV and web production service that enables seven to nine regional and local town hall organizers to fund, promote, and produce uniquely Hoosier in-person and virtual community and TV-studio-based town halls. Collaboration agreements with public broadcasting stations, educational institutions, community foundations, faith-based groups, and other democracy-promoting nonprofits. We envision 50+ town hall events being produced annually with 1/3 of them provided by regional public TV stations and 2/3 held in community and educational auditoriums –both with live audiences, panel discussions, and streaming webcasts. Assuming 7500 viewers for the in-studio productions and 2500 for the community-based events, this adds to more than 200,000 engaged citizens annually. And, assuming a 10-fold multiplier effect for active engagements, two before, three during, and five after the event—that amounts to more than 2,000,000 active encounters with the political process directly attributable to town hall participation.