The Community Challenge November 10-11, 2010

Imagine a city where every citizen entered into a robust public life as equal, enjoying public amenities of choice, engaging actively in the
decisions affecting their community, shaping their community with their citizenship and volunteer commitments, and sharing public space joyfully with others. What is our vision for robust public life and what can we do now to realize it? Further, how can citizens attachment to their community be solidified by their ability to engage in a robust public life?
Public life in the U.S. has been declining for much of the latter half of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, cities have experienced the effects of fraying connections once made strong by participation in basic civic activities like voting and volunteering and collective commitment to quality public amenities like libraries, community centers and recreation facilities. Those who could afford to purchase what they judged as superior services from private providers exited public life. Parents who could afford private schools withdrew their children from public schools. Those who could afford a car for every family member had no need for transit. People who could afford to join a health club abandoned the community recreation center. Those who could buy their books stopped carrying a library card. Parents who could afford elite leagues for their athletic sons and daughters no longer needed the parks and rec leagues. This abandonment of public life by the affluent led to A SHIFT IN VALUES It is only recently that a shift in Americans value of community has emerged. Grassroots efforts like the slow food movement, which rejects industrial agricultural practices and calls specifically for local ownership of food production, point to increasing interest in community building, as do major public space investments such as Millennium Park in The effect of this systemic withdrawal from public lifeand each otherhas important implications on American life and citizen engagement. further decline in the quality of public facilities, as people resented paying for services they didnt use. As a result, American communities are littered with anemic civic amenities whose primary functions are to meet the very basic needs of citizens who cannot afford the private alternatives. These hollowedout community spaces are ill-equipped to foster connections and in fact have exacerbated divides between socio-economic classes.

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Chicago and the High Line in New York City and dramatic increases in bicycle ridership. Even public libraries, which receive 90 percent of their funding from municipalities and thus have endured decades of budget cuts, saw an increase in library card registration in 2008. Attributing much of the renewed interest to Americans seeking low-cost resources in the economic downturn, the American Library Association is nonetheless optimistic about the future of libraries. This shift in values, albeit nascent, has unquestionably been bolstered by social networking tools, which accelerate the creation of platforms for what Clay Shirky refers to as communities of practice. In fact, where ten years ago leading scholars like Robert Putnam pointed to technology as a reason for the decline in social capital, today it is a robust medium for cultivating it. Social media giant Facebook, which began as a site for Harvard University students in 2004, now boasts more than 500 million members, of whom half use the site on a daily basis to connect with each other. Smart phones, instant messaging, text messaging, Tweeting and voiceover-internet technology have similarly accelerated peoples ability to connect with one another. SOUL OF THE COMMUNITY While technology has changed the way we define community, people must live somewhere, making it all the more important to understand what attaches people to their communities. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundations Soul of the Community research, conducted over three years in 26 cities, indicates social offerings, openness and aesthetics are the top three drivers of community attachment. And because attachment to community underpins the rationale for participation in public life, these drivers may serve as the bridge between individuals acting solely in their own best interest and a community that enjoys a robust public life. THE COMMUNITY CHALLENGE On November 10-11, 2010, experts from the fields of citizen engagement, public policy activism, volunteerism, technology, government and citizenled civic production came together in Detroit for the Community Challenge convened by CEOs for Cities. Over 36 hours, they shared knowledge to advance a new understanding of what a contemporary robust public life looks like, what attracts people to it, what it ought to deliver (its purpose and its value to individuals and to communities), how it should be evaluated and how we get more of it.

The Community Challenge was one of five national challenges staged by CEOs for Cities as part of the US Initiative, an ambitious movement by CEOs for Cities national network of civic leaders, influential partners and brave new thinkers to define a new American Dream. The project articulates a Declaration of Interdependence with values that define cities of tomorrow, today. Each of these recommendations is predicated on a strong sense of community attachment a necessary condition for engendering the culture of responsibility to a Civic Commons, creating the neighborly spirit of the block-level interventions and developing the resources and education needed to organize effectively. Because social offerings, openness and aesthetics underpin community attachment, each of our recommendations is designed to amplify these factors in communities. If a City Public Life Pledge establishes norms, those norms should not only promote openness, but also, themselves, be inclusive. Block parties and programs like NeighborWalks create social opportunities places for people to make connections, have fun and collectively replenish the Commons by enjoying each other and their place together and in public. And finally, the undercurrent of and assertion for good design in nearly all of our recommendations (and in and of itself an entire category) is a telling indication of the importance of aesthetics in cultivating robust public life. The following pages reveal Big Ideas that emerged from the Community Challenge that both drive community attachment and cultivate a robust public life. Results of the Connectivity Challenge will be put to use in national publications related to the US Initiative, including a book to be published by The Rockefeller Foundation.

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1. PROMOTE THE CIVIC COMMONS WITH A PUBLIC LIFE PLEDGE

The tipping point of the environmental movement was the widespread recognition of the depletion of natural resources that we all shared and depended on. Kristen Engberg, drawing on her experience as Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, set up a powerful parallel by referring us to the Global Commons concept, which early advocates used to describe our relationship to the sky. None of us owns it, and yet all of us have equal access to it and a huge stake in its quality and content. Applying this construct to civic life allows us to see our relationship within a Civic or New American Commons as one where we have a responsibility to replenish what we take. When something public is widely accepted as sacred think of National Parks our behavior within that space changes. Among other things, we need to learn to treat public life as a sanctuary. A Public Life Pledge puts forth a set of ideas and expectations about the way we do things around here to sustain our civic commons. It calls forth a culture of shared responsibility between government and citizens. Community Challenge participants following thought-starters: offered the WE LIVE IN A COMMUNITY WHERE... residents identify and address local needs. the city protects the public and the residents look out for each others well being. each person treats others the way that they, themselves, want and deserve to be treated. all our encouraged to find inspiration and comfort in public. I can expect spontaneous experiences. I can expect pleasure and diversity. I contribute what I can when I can. there are very real consequences for degrading the public realm. The Public Life Pledge could be customized down to the neighborhood or block level but also be scalable citywide. Wherever you are, thats your community, but all communities are seen to be in the context of the whole place. Justin Bibb proposed that the Pledge be linked to a set of tools and performance measures to create accountability a Robust Public Life Index, perhaps. Such an index would provide clear paths for improvement to city leaders. (Mayor, you can improve your score and realize the commitments in your Public Life Pledge by undertaking X, Y and Z.)

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2. ADVOCATE FOR THE ALL-OUT INFUSION OF DESIGN INTO GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS
Design standards for government communication with citizens is abysmal. It rarely communicates, does little to counter cynicism and apathy, and stifles more than invites participation. Just look at the typical public notice. Design of government communication with and for its citizens needs a major overhaul. In fact, good design underlies all of the recommendations made during the Community Challenge. Accomplishing that overhaul could include: CREATE DESIGN FOR AMERICA, similar to Teach for America or Code for America to help local governments embed good design into its communication (at minimum. Better yet to embed good design into the structuring of processes and services.) STAGE MUNICIPAL DESIGN COMPETITIONS OR CHALLENGES. Get design for everything from processes to messages to streets, buildings and landscapes out of the current black box of designers. Make design processes transparent, participatory, and fun. As one participant noted, make it fashionable to give a damn. MAKE GOOD DESIGN THE NEW NORMAL in government and NGOs. Educate local officials on the power of design, and support them as they learn by doing. Participants urged adoption of several guiding design principles when working to increase public life: Be intentional about replicability at the front end, and make the scale of the effort a conscious choice. Every single city has something cool going on. The question is how to scale it for impact. Look at external conditions all along with way, and adapt, adapt, adapt. Make public life as we describe it here, and as cities capture it in a Public Life Pledge, fashionable. This is how a tipping point develops. Make it something to be part of, and something that folks will want to be part of. At a minimum, make it something you would want to be part of!

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3. RE-ESTABLISH THE BLOCK AS THE BASIC GEOGRAPHY FOR ENGAGEMENT

NEIGHBORHOOD DIGITAL DASHBOARDS Clay Johnson argued forcefully for the introduction of digital dashboards with important neighborhood information displayed in popular neighborhood locations grocery stores, salons, etc. By displaying neighborhood information regularly and pervasively, neighbors are likely to act on that information to the benefit of their neighborhood. NEIGHBORWALKS Kip Harkness pioneered NeighborWalks in San Jose. Josh McManus is doing something similar in Chattanooga. These walks are a simple, low-cost, lowadmin way to encourage people to take responsibility for their neighborhood, get to know each other, report and fix problems, and engage in a little healthy exercise. This heretofore local activity can be expanded citywide. SPACE FOR NEIGHBORHOOD ART GATHERINGS Art can be used to bring diverse people together. It is increasingly supported and presented in spaces that are not-for-much profit, a hybrid between for-profits and not-for-profits. This model should be explored for its community potential. Tania Jackson shared an anecdote from her experience at a local coffee shop in Washington, DC, which organically became a community art gallery. Because neighbors began to see themselves in the design of the project, the informal space provided an opportunity to get the conversation going in a neighborhood where formal settings werent working.

The block captain is a legendary character in American life. Sometimes he or she was known as mayor of the block, or maybe as simply a busybody. It may be an old-fashioned concept, but having someone on the block who keeps up with whos there and whats happening turns a neighborhood into a shared place. The block is still an easy point of entry to public life and neighborliness. However, as fundament as block-level organizing is, it is also most often missing. Participants in the Community Challenge had several ideas on how to make the most of the block: BLOCK PARTIES Make block parties very easy to get permitted. Make it possible to do it all online with one caveat: You have to knock on every door to get a permit. The obvious secondary benefits are that neighbors get to know each other, and everyone gets an invitation. NEIGHBORHOOD CONVERSATIONS IN REAL SPACE Candy Chang is testing simple, graphic demonstrations that invite neighborhood conversations in New Orleans. Such graphic provocations that invite neighbors to display for all to see what they want to see in their neighborhoods are quite striking, transparent and democratic. These displays could be mounted in many neighborhoods.

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4. FACILITATE MICRO-TASKS FOR COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERING

What if living a robust public life was as simple as putting one foot in front of the other, as fun as talking with your friends and even healthy for you? This principle, offered by Kip Harkness, prompted a discussion about participation that brought about at least one possible conclusion: We dont need more leaders. We need more followers. Wherever and however you can enter public life is okay. For some, its too time consuming to go to a meeting or too scary to knock on a neighbors door. (Abhi Nemani of Code for America made this point by saying, I could knock on doors but Im much better at building a website, so why wouldnt I do that instead?) Micro-task volunteering allows people to be where they are without judgment and without long-term commitments. Candy Changs suggestion FourSquare for volunteering might facilitate impulsive action with appealingly small commitments and even reward participants somehow (e.g. with badges). This also strengthens the public realm by enabling informal neighborhood interactions. As Tania Jackson pointed out, you have to have informal places to get the conversation going or the formal settings wont work. Micro-task volunteering also shifts the emphasis from the involvers to the involved, a dynamic shift championed by Matt Leighninger of Everyday Democracy. The Case Foundation is documenting the energy of Millennials in this space and the shift toward DIY and crowdsourced participation.

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5. CREATE CAPABILITY AND CREDENTIALS IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Clay Johnson made the important distinction that organizing is a skill and art, not software. Pointing to the success of my.barackobama.com, which was developed by a firm he co-founded, he pointed out the obvious lack of transferability. (The United Way could use the same software, but they would not raise $500 million or reach 55 million people.) Instead of investing in software, he argued, we should be teaching organizing in high school and college. Political and community organizing training has proven its effectiveness. But there is no commensurate training for community leadership. The New Organizing Institute, which promises to build the practice of engagement organizing, and leaders who are great at it through its roots camps and boot camps, may, in fact, provide such training, but such training should be widely available. Many high school and university students are now required to engage in service learning in order to graduate. Rather than spend all of this time volunteering, some of this time should be spent challenging students to organize their own service projects related to what can be improved in their neighborhoods and then doing it. Many young designers, even more seasoned designers through AIGA, are eager to engage in community change. However, they get little training in how to work effectively with community organizations. Design schools should be encouraged to assist design students in negotiating these relationships with education and training. Robust public life provides the means for sustaining ongoing social innovation and change. Through it, we can mobilize the resources and relationships needed to make life in cities better for everyone.

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CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS
Kate Baker, Director of Development, Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) Justin Bibb, Director, Civic Health Index (Washington, DC) Candy Chang, Co-Founder, Civic Center Urban Design Studio (New Orleans, LA) Carol Coletta, President & CEO, CEOs for Cities (Chicago, IL) Mark Drapeau, Director of Innovative Social Engagement, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector (Washington, DC) Kristen Engberg, Principal, Grassroots Solutions (Minneapolis, MN) Kip Harkness, Director, Strong Neighborhoods, City of San Jose (San Jose, CA) Bill Hosinger-Robinson, Executive Director, ArtPrize (Grand Rapids, MI) Tania Jackson, Principal, Create Communitas (Washington, DC) Clay Johnson, Open Government Advocate (Washington, DC) Helen Johnson, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist, CreateHere (Chattanooga, TN) Debra Kerr, Consultant, Strategist and Change Agent, Museums and Social Change (Chicago, IL) Lindsay Kinkade, Designer and Adjunct Faculty Member, Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI) Julia Klaiber, Director of External Affairs, CEOs for Cities (Washington, DC) Matt Leighninger, Senior Associate, Everyday Democracy (Hartford, CT) Katherine Loflin, Lead Consultant, Soul of the Community (Charlotte, NC) Sean Mann, Founder, Lets Save Michigan (Detroit, MI) Josh McManus, Co-Founder, CreateHere (Chattanooga, TN) Abhi Nemani, Director of Strategy and Communications, Code for America (San Francisco, CA) Maria Popova, Founder & Editor, Brain Pickings (Los Angeles, CA) Damon Rich, Urban Planner, City of Newark (Newark, NJ) Nia Robinson, Director, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (Detroit, MI) Ethan Seltzer, Professor, College of Urban and Public Affairs, Portland State University (Portland, OR)

SPECIAL THANKS The Community Challenge was made possible with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.

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The US Initiative is brought to you by

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WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION