CityClub Presents: The 2008 Community Matters Campaign

Opening with United Way’s Day of Caring on September 12th and ending on Election Day on November 4th CityClub’s Community Matters Campaign (formerly Civic Participation Month) will include forums, events, dialogues and resources promoting personal engagement and organizational collaboration across a full spectrum of civic activity—from voter preparation to volunteerism, dialogue to community building—moving citizens from talk to action, because community matters!

Program Elements:

For 2008, the Campaign will focus on the importance and ingredients of social capital—the ties that bind the citizens of King County together as a community. Our goal is to move citizens along the spectrum of civic engagement from information to deeper levels of belonging and involvement through dialogue and action.

Program elements will include:

• Education - In-depth, non-partisan information and opinion offered by experts, community leaders and policymakers. Presented as 7 live public forums and candidate debates on health care, environmental stewardship, public education and imminent elections and ballot initiatives. Each session will be presented to a live public audience. It will also be broadcast multiple times on cable television (Seattle Channel and TVW) and available for streaming and as podcasts.
 

• Community Dialogue – New this year, CityClub will host up to 50 facilitated community conversations asking citizens to weigh in on the ways they are currently engaged in the community and the barriers and opportunities they see to strengthening that engagement. Participants will also be asked what elected and civic leaders can do to support deeper citizen engagement. Designed with a variety of community partners, the dialogues will be held with diverse groups in diverse sites throughout King County. Data collected will supplement current research on the assets and challenges we face in building social capital.
 

• Action – All Community Matters Campaign participants will be charged to take action to deepen their civic engagement. A web-based “civic action toolbox” will be available as a resource and all dialogue and forum participants will be asked to sign individual pledge cards listing specific investments they intend to make. CityClub will record these civic commitments and mail back copies of the pledge cards to remind participants of their commitments. Additionally, dialogue and online participants will identify strategies we should take to strengthen our social capital. At the end of the Campaign, micro-grants will be awarded to community organizations addressing these identified needs.
 

• Community Report – The Community Matters Campaign will conclude with a report to the community—policymakers, press, and the public—summarizing what we learn from participating individuals and organizations over the program’s duration. This report will highlight common ground observations and recommendations identified across differences of political ideology, locality, race, professional and cultural background, generation and class. Our Community Matters Campaign Report will be documented and archived on CityClub’s website and disseminated for use by journalists, students and teachers, community leaders and voters.

 

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Thanks to our:

Series Sponsors:

KUOW Public Radio
Safeco
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Times
University of Washington Medical Center

Forum Sponsors:

City University of Seattle
Microsoft
Seattle City Council

Supporting Sponsors:

Seattle Children's

CMC Event Co-Presenters:

Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington
Executive Alliance
Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce
King County Democrats
Leadership Eastside
Leadership Tomorrow
Seattle Works
Washington Policy Center
YMCA of Greater Seattle
YWCA of Seattle/King/Snohomish County