About Us

PolicyOptions.org is a project of the Youth Policy Institute in collaboration with colleges and universities, beginning with those participating in the Bonner Foundation's Bonner Program network.

This effort will connect the public policy research expertise and experience of the Youth Policy Institute with the direct service and community-based research programming of colleges and universities.

The "missing link" for many community change efforts is up-to-date, comprehensive, balanced information on the distinctly different solutions for addressing one or more related issues. This information, which will be found in the PolicyOption.org websites and publications, will support more informed decision-making about the direction of policy and program change.

Over the last forty years, David Hackett and the Youth Policy Institute established an approach for gathering and presenting information on distinctly different solutions on a wide range of public policy issues. In particular, YPI developed a methodology for organizing policy options into a planning tree framework that allows any individual, organization, or community to understand the options for dealing with a problem, based on the best thinking that has occurred on that issue worldwide.

We believe that colleges and universities can more fully realize their teaching, research, and service missions by including public policy research and analysis as part of their civic engagement programming. By tapping into existing or new academic courses in which students write public policy papers and linking those efforts directly to the community outreach centers now found on most college and university campuses, we can mobilize the tremendous intellectual and technical resources of higher education to work in partnership with and in response to requests from local, state, and national non-profit and government agencies working on the front-lines of community problem-solving.

“The very ignorance that confounds society is a call to action for universities. It underscores the other vital social purpose that we possess: to contribute the knowledge that will help society discover how to overcome its pressing problems.”

— Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University, in his final commencement address.

The PolicyOptions.org website is currently in development, but we are not waiting until it is completed to being recruiting faculty and other interested individuals and organizations to begin the process of developing an international network of community information bureaus. We are at the early stages of this effort, but are planning now with faculty from five campuses to begin pilot efforts this fall.

If you're interested in learning more, please contact me by phone (609-924-6663) or email (rhackett@bonner.org).

Robert Hackett, Project Director