Posts Tagged: community

Grassroots Effort Leads to Big Local Change in Urban Area

By Katherine Parker, Associate Consultant, MPA’12 In early March, we completed a six month engagement with a coalition of seven synagogues along Pennsylvania’s Old York Road and presented our final action plan for the revitalization of the area. Although the project is at an end, it feels much more like a new beginning – withRead… Read more »

One Night in Santa Cruz: Nonexistent Political Compromise

It’s a Tuesday night and it’s sprinkling outside, much to my dismay, as I head over to City Hall to witness what is expected to be a long and onerous council meeting. As I near the chambers it becomes obvious that a large swath of people have already begun to pour out onto the patioRead… Read more »

Communication Breakdown: Government Still Undervalues the Need for Legitimate Public Buy in

This past week my co-founder Manu and I headed to Sacramento for the annual California WateReuse conference, a policy/trade event that focuses on promoting the development of recycled water and desalination. Those in attendance included some of the industry’s best engineers, a wide array of public agencies and utilities, and of course, the public outreachRead… Read more »

Health Justice CT Challenge Winner Announced!

Big news happening. I was fortunate to be part of the selection committee for the Health Justice CT Challenge that got kicked off at the end of 2011. Basically Connecticut is growing leaders and innovators to reshape how health makes an impact in their communities. The purpose of the challenge was to open the ideaRead… Read more »

Women in the Defense Industry: Still Struggling?

As a woman who has spent pretty much my entire career in the defense industry, I’ve never really felt like a part of the “gender gap” arguments about females working in a male-dominated field. National security – just like the military ranks themselves – have always been male dominated. There’s often good reason for thisRead… Read more »

How Event Polling Best Reaches Target Constituencies

Government, by necessity and obligation, must understand the competing interests and ideologies of the variety of identity groups that it serves. Put another way, those who are in charge must always have an ear to the ground if they want to remain in charge. That being said, there is no silver bullet in terms ofRead… Read more »

News from Australia : The paranoia that will ‘shut’ government

Now how true do these observations hold for America and elsewhere? The Canberra Times kindly published an article of mine in the Public Sector Informant magazine. The informant itself is not available on line so I’ve provided it in pdf below. You sometimes hear people complain about how the press alters the what they sayRead… Read more »

Five organizing tips for a successful open government unconference

Original appearance on opensource.com. Joining the open source (and CityCamp) movement has been one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve been involved with open source for over a decade, but I never got involved in a community project in any significant way–until I found CityCamp. I haven’t submitted a single line of code,Read… Read more »

New Year’s Resolution: Put Your Geek Powers to Work For Good

Does your New Year’s resolution involve inspiring young people to be science and technology leaders, engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, and fostering well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership? If so, is this a vision statement you can get behind? “To transform our culture by creatingRead… Read more »

What is Facebook good for? Helping to find a missing child: a Fort Hood story with a happy ending

I happen to subscribe to the official Facebook page of Fort Hood (TX) because my husband sometimes teaches there..I am on the East Coast. He had a fantastic experience there, made friends, and learned a lot himself. I check in once in a while to see what “the Great Place” is doing because he wasRead… Read more »