Healthy Democracy

Postcards were sent to 15,000 randomly-selected households in Fort Collins, Colorado inviting residents to enter a lottery. From that lottery, twenty will be chosen to serve as Delegates for the #HughesCivicAssembly. Stay tuned for the public Lottery Selection on Tuesday, March 18! https://lnkd.in/gz66fi8Y #civicassembly #citizensassembly #deliberativedemocracy #democraticinnovation #participatorydemocracy #fortcollins #colorado #democraticlottery

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We are excited to announce our newest project, the Hughes Civic Assembly! The Hughes Stadium site has a long history in Fort Collins, Colorado, and this Spring, 20 Fort Collins residents, selected by lottery, will help determine its future. This is a unique, collaborative effort between Healthy Democracy, the City of Fort Collins, Center for Public Deliberation, The American Public Trust, and Local Policy Lab. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gAa4WjkX #civicassembly #citizensassembly #deliberativedemocracy #democraticinnovation #participatorydemocracy #fortcollins #colorado

Calling all #democracy advocates in #California! ?? Do you want to bring PB to your community? Applications are open for our new cohort training program, launching in spring 2025. The PB Seeds California program connects and equips leaders and advocates across California with knowledge, tools, and networks in order to advocate for PB in their communities. ?? We encourage you to apply and share with your networks! Questions? Feel free to reach out to our California Advocacy Manager, Edna Sandoval. #peoplepower #equity #justice #participatorydemocracy #organizing Learn more and apply today: https://lnkd.in/gqw_aQks

Linn Davis has been with Healthy Democracy for nine years, since the days of the Citizens Initiative Review. He recently took his expertise to the national level as a guest on USA Today's podcast, The Excerpt, to talk about the promise and potential of Civic Assemblies. It's an excellent overview of Civic Assemblies and the Deschutes Civic Assembly on Youth Homelessness - and gives a little peek into our next project. Give it a listen: https://lnkd.in/gEbYgKi6 #civicassembly #citizensassembly #deliberativedemocracy #usatoday #theexcerpt #democraticinnovation #participatorydemocracy

“Sometimes speaking through tears of happiness, those present tell how the experience felt "inspirational", "hopeful",? "positive" and left them with feelings of "optimism for the future" and "love". That's because such assemblies weave a kind of magic that is deeply human. They are forums in which everyone respectfully speaks, is heard, and listens by turn.” ?

"It was like Congress without the showboating." We loved The New Yorker's report on how exactly a citizens' assembly works – and why it works so well. We were especially proud that writer Nick Romeo chose to focus on the Deschutes Civic Assembly on Youth Homelessness, which we helped organize in the US county of Deschutes, Oregon, alongside partners Central Oregon Civic Action Project, Healthy Democracy, Oregon State University Cascades and MIT Center for Constructive Communication. One aspect of citizens' assemblies delightfully illustrated by The New Yorker article is how groups of people who begin to trust each other come up with new ideas. One such was when Benjamin – "a bearded man in a blue-and-white plaid shirt" who described his ideology as "somewhere in the vicinity of anarchism, agorism, and libertarianism" – suggested that money for homelessness could be raised by a tax on newcomers to town. Benjamin told the magazine that the suggestion surprised even himself. "What libertarian have you heard suggest hiking up taxes?” he said. ?? PS see the comments for a link to Nick Romeo's account of his experience of the Deschutes assembly in Political Gabfest, the leading US podcast from Slate. Read the full essay ?? https://lnkd.in/gzhvG9eD

???? What could citizens' assemblies do for American politics? Great to see the Deschutes Civic Assembly on Youth Homelessness - one of DemocracyNext's projects in collaboration with a wide consortium of partners - covered in The New Yorker: "Last July, an unusual letter arrived at Kathryn Kundmueller’s mobile home, in central Oregon. It invited her to enter a lottery that would select thirty residents of Deschutes County to deliberate for five days on youth homelessness—a visible and contentious issue in an area where the population and cost of living have spiked in recent years. Those chosen would be paid for their time—almost five hundred dollars—and asked to develop specific policy recommendations. Kundmueller was being invited to join what is known as a citizens’ assembly. These gatherings do what most democracies only pretend to: trust normal people to make decisions on difficult policy questions. Many citizens’ assemblies follow a basic template. They impanel a random but representative cross-section of a population, give them high-quality information on a topic, and ask them to work together to reach a decision. In Europe, such groups have helped spur reform of the Irish constitution in order to legalize abortion, guided an Austrian pharmaceutical heiress on?how to give away?her wealth, and become a regular part of government in Paris and Belgium. Though still rare in America, the model reflects the striking idea that fundamental problems of politics—polarization, apathy, manipulation by special interests—can be transformed through radically direct democracy." ?? Read the rest of Nick Romeo's essay: https://lnkd.in/dsewxgnh ?? Learn more about the Deschutes Civic Assembly: https://lnkd.in/dWAxMy-M Project partners: Healthy Democracy MIT Center for Constructive Communication Oregon State University Central Oregon Civic Action Project Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council Deschutes County City of Bend The Rockefeller Foundation Quadrivium Foundation Omidyar Network Matt Abrams Josh Burgess Linn Davis Grace Taylor Justin Reedy Lauren Babcock, NPMP, CHW Deb Roy Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou Maya Detwiller Marina Rakhilin, MSW Elizabeth Marino Tammy Baney Anthony Broadman Kevin O'Neil Michelle Barsa

? Join Us! ? Healthy Democracy is looking for passionate, diverse voices to join our Board of Directors! If you're excited about democratic innovation and collaborative governance, we’d love to hear from you. ?? Tell us about yourself: https://lnkd.in/gT8fMtSF #healthydemocracy #delibiwave #civicassembly #citizensassembly #democraticinnovation #collaborativegovernance

Well said, Elizabeth Marino!