Feature: 

Supporting Citizen Engagement - 

CSC Announces Launch of $125,000 Citizen Engagement Program

Common Sense California is pleased to announce the offering of $125,000 in grant monies to city/regional governments and school districts through the Citizen Engagement Grant Program.  The grants are another example of CSC's support of citizen engagement throughout California as a means of producing more creative policy decisions and creating non-electoral "spaces" where citizens can exercise their self governance.

 

The grants are divided into two denominations. CSC will be awarding four Common Sense Grants in amounts up to $25,000 each. Applications for these grants are being received currently up to the final date of September 10th. Grantees will be notified on October 1st. There are also several Catalyst Grants in amounts from $1,000 to $7,500 that will be awarded on a "rolling" basis starting June 20th.

 

To learn more about the grant criteria and to apply for a grant, please see our website. 

Projects:

Threshold 2008 Continues in San Mateo County with Online Dialogues

Threshold 2008, the citizen-originated public involvement effort in San Mateo County to discuss the topic of affordable housing completed the second part of a three-stage campaign to engage citizens of the region.  Following on the very well-received Deliberative Poll, which took place in March, an "Online Dialogue" was carried out in May with over 400 people participating. These citizens engaged each other online over a two week period in a facilitated "chat room" environment. For more information about the results of this online "conversation," please see their website.

 

The third and final stage of Threshold 2008 begins this month with a series of "Community Conversations" held throughout San Mateo County. These will be 2-3 hour discussions lead by trained local volunteers. To learn more about these events or to find one in your area, just check their website.

 

Common Sense California supported Threshold 2008 with a $25,000 grant earlier this year. 

Promoting Citizen Engagement:

CSC in the News 

May 19: Pete Peterson writes piece on Threshold 2008 in Santa Barbara's leading online news source, Noozhawk.

 

May 28: Pete Peterson writes brief essay on the Citizen Engagement Grant Program for Fox & Hounds Daily, a new online e-newsletter about California politics and business.

 

June 2: CSC's Citizen Engagement Grant Program is covered by California City News. 

Projects:

"Blind Items" 

Not at a stage where we can announce them, still, these are "percolating" projects that CSC has been consulting on in May:

    - A Los Angeles-area school district is looking at engaging their citizens about a       5-10 year plan for both curriculum and building projects.

    - A California city wants to find a more productive way to involve their citizens       in the development of their General Plan. 

    - A small Bay Area city wants to engage their citizens in a discussion about a       significant land use issue.

    - A San Diego-area school district wants to convene citizens for a general           discussion about a "vision" for the future of their schools.