Welcome to ICI


Have you ever felt like the people in these photos? We've heard these exact comments from state and local elected officials when they called on us to help them intervene in community controversy.


Community involvement is a process that should help, not hinder, public decision-making. While most of the business of local and state government is simply taking care of the day-to-day needs of residents, about 10% of the time the policy makers are called to decide important changes that could create substantial change or might negatively affect constituents.  It those time when a formal public involvement processes should be in place to support the best practices and decision.

“Holy Cow!  The council chamber looks like the set of the Jerry Springer Show...and the staff is headed out the back door!”

“We looked up and the place was full of screaming citizens!”

“I just wish we could have a constructive conversation.  Everyone seems to have an emotional knee-jerk opinion.  Why can’t we just talk about this rationally?”

“If we can get three people to show up for our normal meetings we feel lucky.”

So, what's the problem here?


For the past twenty years, the principals of the Institute for Community Involvement, LLC have dedicated their lives to helping state and municipal jurisdictions and their community members:

•Develop common understanding,

•Discuss difficult issues, and

•Decide their future.


In 2001, Lance Decker and Theresa Gunn understood that community-based problems interventions did not give any long-term relief to clients. So they created ICI, a limited liability corporation. ICI's training, education and research programs focus on the fundamentals of community involvement that can get policy-makers and public managers out of the reactive "swamp" and on to "dry land" by utilizing skilled planning and problem resolution techniques.