New Blog Site

Greetings!


Here is a link to the new blog for Santa Rosa Together (Santa Rosa Together)

Santa Rosa Together Speaker Series

Santa Rosa Together members,

There are three big events taking place in the next month that will help us move towards our goals. 

1.  Thursday, September 25: The first speaker in the Santa Rosa Together Speaker series, now presented in partnership with the city, will speak in City Council Chamber, City Hall, over the lunch hour, 12:00 - 1:30 PM on the 25th. Our speaker, Matt Leighninger, the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, is a national leader in the work to build local democracy. Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. You will not want to miss this event! Please see the attached flyer for details. Most importantly, please use this flyer to get the word out on this SRT/City event.  It would be great if each of us brought one new person to hear Matt's presentation --and to the events below as well.

2.  Monday, September 29:  Open Government Task Force community forum; The City of Santa Rosa, Open Government Task Force, will hold an Open Government Forum at the Church of the One Tree, 492 Sonoma Avenue, 6 - 8 PM on the 29th.  This forum will give us a chance to share ideas on how we can make our government more transparent and accessible. Our SRT Government Action Team is working with and has provided input to the Task Force. See attached flyer for details.

3,  Monday, October 6: Meeting with new City Manager: The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Alliance and Santa Rosa Together will co-sponsor a meeting to meet and talk with Sean McGlynn, Santa Rosa's new city manager.  Thanks to SRNA for taking the initiative to set up this important meeting. The meeting will take place in the evening on October 6. We will let you know the exact time and place as soon as they are determined.  This will be a great opportunity for us to talk with the new city manager and build a better partnership with the city.

The most recent description of Santa Rosa Together is also attached for you to use in your outreach.

Hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Hank

For your Steering Committee

 

 Speaker SeSpeaker Series: Matt Leighninger

The Next Form of Democracy: How citizens and local government are building new partnerships and moving beyond adversity

When: Thursday, September 25
Noon–1:30 PM (Brown bag lunch welcomed)

Where: City Council Chamber, City Hall

100 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa Rosa CA 95404

 

Matt Leighninger is a national leader in working to strengthen local communities and local democracy. He is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), an alliance of the major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public participation. The DDC represents more than 50 foundations, nonprofit organizations, and universities, collaborating to support research activities and advance democratic practice, in North America and around the world. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy, traced the recent shifts in the relationship between citizens and government, and examines how these trends are reshaping politics. Recently, he led a working group that produced a model ordinance on public participation; and another that developed a new tool, “Text, Talk, and Act,” for combining texting and face-to-face participation as part of President Obama’s National Dialogue on Mental Health. Over the past 18 years, Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.

“Bringing the Best Practices in Civic Engagement and Local Democracy to Santa Rosa from around the world.”

Presented by: Santa Rosa Together

In partnership with:

  

Who is Santa Rosa Together? A broad non-partisan coalition of community leaders working to get more people engaged, give everyone a voice and role, and improve the way we work together in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa Together Speaker Series

Santa Rosa Together members,

There are three big events taking place in the next month that will help us move towards our goals. 

1.  Thursday, September 25: The first speaker in the Santa Rosa Together Speaker series, now presented in partnership with the city, will speak in City Council Chamber, City Hall, over the lunch hour, 12:00 - 1:30 PM on the 25th. Our speaker, Matt Leighninger, the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, is a national leader in the work to build local democracy. Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. You will not want to miss this event! Please see the attached flyer for details. Most importantly, please use this flyer to get the word out on this SRT/City event.  It would be great if each of us brought one new person to hear Matt's presentation --and to the events below as well.

2.  Monday, September 29:  Open Government Task Force community forum; The City of Santa Rosa, Open Government Task Force, will hold an Open Government Forum at the Church of the One Tree, 492 Sonoma Avenue, 6 - 8 PM on the 29th.  This forum will give us a chance to share ideas on how we can make our government more transparent and accessible. Our SRT Government Action Team is working with and has provided input to the Task Force. See attached flyer for details.

3,  Monday, October 6: Meeting with new City Manager: The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Alliance and Santa Rosa Together will co-sponsor a meeting to meet and talk with Sean McGlynn, Santa Rosa's new city manager.  Thanks to SRNA for taking the initiative to set up this important meeting. The meeting will take place in the evening on October 6. We will let you know the exact time and place as soon as they are determined.  This will be a great opportunity for us to talk with the new city manager and build a better partnership with the city.

The most recent description of Santa Rosa Together is also attached for you to use in your outreach.

Hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Hank

For your Steering Committee

 

 Speaker SeSpeaker Series: Matt Leighninger

The Next Form of Democracy: How citizens and local government are building new partnerships and moving beyond adversity

When: Thursday, September 25
Noon–1:30 PM (Brown bag lunch welcomed)

Where: City Council Chamber, City Hall

100 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa Rosa CA 95404

 

Matt Leighninger is a national leader in working to strengthen local communities and local democracy. He is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), an alliance of the major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public participation. The DDC represents more than 50 foundations, nonprofit organizations, and universities, collaborating to support research activities and advance democratic practice, in North America and around the world. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy, traced the recent shifts in the relationship between citizens and government, and examines how these trends are reshaping politics. Recently, he led a working group that produced a model ordinance on public participation; and another that developed a new tool, “Text, Talk, and Act,” for combining texting and face-to-face participation as part of President Obama’s National Dialogue on Mental Health. Over the past 18 years, Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.

“Bringing the Best Practices in Civic Engagement and Local Democracy to Santa Rosa from around the world.”

Presented by: Santa Rosa Together

In partnership with:

  

Who is Santa Rosa Together? A broad non-partisan coalition of community leaders working to get more people engaged, give everyone a voice and role, and improve the way we work together in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa Together Suggestions for City Website Improvements

Greetings!

Here is an example of what anyone can produce using Google Engine Pro, and the information usually published on local government websites.


Santa Rosa Neighborhood Public Notices

Civic Apps

Greetings!

Here is my collection of articles and website descriptions of interesting mobile phone apps which assist civic engagement.

City Voice
Honolulu Answers
Jail Population Management Dashboard
Ohana API
RecordTrac
StreetMix
The Daily Brief
To the Trails
Aunt Bertha
Civic Insight
Local Data
Open Counter
Where's My SchoolBus ?
Family Assessment Form
Measured Voice

To learn more about Code For America's Initiatives, visit Initiatives


Gregory

Second Meeting of Santa Rosa Together, Feb 1, 2014

Greetings!

The second meeting of Santa Rosa Together was successfully held on February 1st, 10am to 12:30pm, at Lawrence Cook Middle School, 2480 Sebastopol Road, in Santa Rosa.  Eighty-five residents participated in the meeting, and notes from it are included below.

A third meeting will be held on April 12th, 2014 at the same time and place.   We can be reached by commenting on this post, and leaving your contact information.

The following ws distributed at the meeting:

Santa Rosa Together Second Meeting: From Vision to Action

AGENDA

Increasing Resident Engagement and Improving the Way We Work Together

Saturday, February 1, 2014

10:00am- 12:30pm

Registration, coffee and snacks begin at 9:30

Lawrence Cook Middle School

2480 Sebastopol Road

Second meeting agenda: From Vision to Action

1.     Welcome, introductions, review of progress to date, and expectations for today --Arnie Barragan  (10 minutes)

2.     Explanation of the process used to develop the drafts for our vision and for this year’s objectives --Hank Topper  (10 minutes)

3.     Discussion/Adoption of Vision and Objectives (30 minutes)

a.     Table discussions  (10 min)

b.     Large group feedback  (15 min)

c.     Thumbs up/down vote  (5 min)

4.     Identification of Possible Action Activities to reach our Objectives (80 minutes)

a.     Table discussion: Facilitators assist participants to identify action activities which would help us pursue this year’s objectives, defining barriers, resources, and additional participants.  Tables select top 5 ideas and summarize in LARGE writing on ½ sheets of paper. (25 minutes)

b.     Table Report outs: Using a blue sticky wall, each table reports out to the whole group on their ideas.  Ideas will be clustered by report-out person and facilitator.  (40 minutes)

c.     Priority Setting and Commitments: Each meeting participant will use 3 sticky dots to vote on priorities for action and commitment dots (as many as they want) to put their names on the actions that they will work on.  (15 minutes)

5.     Summary, discussion, and action items for next steps (20 minutes)

a.     Overview of what we’ve accomplished

b.     Next Meeting and Next Steps

c.     Final thoughts, takeaways, suggestions

If you are interested in being part of the Santa Rosa Together Planning Team, please contact Hank Topper at hanktopper@gmail.com

Draft Vision

·       Santa Rosa has a strong democratic culture of mutual respect, dialogue, and inclusion that has improved our city’s ability to work together and address concerns.  Everyone’s voice and contribution are valued and encouraged and our mutual respect for each other supports our efforts to find common ground.  All segments of our community are equally valued, fully engaged, and playing leading roles in the development of a strong and healthy city.  Santa Rosa is known across the world for it democratic institutions and culture.

·       A large number of city residents are organized and actively engaged in setting the direction and doing the work to create a great city.  We are a city with a strong foundation of organized neighborhoods and communities where we get to know each other, take responsibility, and learn how to work together and take action to build strong communities and a strong city 

·       Governments and elected officials understand the importance of broad community engagement, support the organization of residents, and partner with residents and their organizations to make important decisions and to accomplish shared goals.

·       Our city’s business, religious, and social organizations contribute resources and services to support resident engagement and partner with residents and their organization to accomplish shared goals.

·       Santa Rosa has developed and institutionalized creative new ways to make it easier for citizens to become informed, learn from each other, and participate meaningfully in the decisions and work that will shape our city.  Our new ways of engaging people give them real power and responsibility and bring the decision process and work to our neighborhoods, schools, and churches to make it possible for everyone to participate meaningfully.

Draft Objectives

Objective 1:  We will take steps to improve the democratic culture of mutual respect, dialogue and inclusion in our city.

Objective 2: We will take steps to increase the number of engaged residents and organized neighborhoods and communities in our city.

Objective 3:  We will take steps to increase the capability of Governmental institutions and their respective policy/decision makers to support and partner with residents and their organizations. 

Objective 4:  We will take steps to increase the capability of our city’s business, religious and social organizations to support and partner with residents and their organizations

Objective 5:  We will develop a new process that increases the number of residents and their organizations participating in the decisions and the work to address a key community issue

Following the meeting, th Steering Committee assembled th following document from materials developed at the meeting:

ACTION PROPOSALS, VOTES, AND VOLUNTEERS

Cross sector trust building (11/3)

Convene a “mixer” with multiple groups i.e. SR Chamber, Hispanic Chamber and Black Chamber, social justice and local residents to interact to build trust to work together.

Votes:  11

Volunteers:  Eduardo Vasquex, Gail Thomas, Veronica Jacobi

Youth (13/9)

Have a youth council with a rep from each school who talks with students, then goes to city to voice the youth opinion

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers: 2  Anna Ucik, Hank Topper

Plan a youth summit for all youth groups to build awareness of how youth can participate in key community issues

                  Votes:  6

Volunteers: 7  Yuni Mendoza, Itzel Martinez, Donna Born, Vince Harper,  Gregory Fearon, Roni  Jacobi, Kay Ward

 “Like” DIG and YEC on Facebook (youth organizations) as well as other groupd participating in SRT

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Citizen Engagement and capacity (42/18)

SRT will develop a committee to organize neighborhood block potlucks to build community engagement.  Invite nonprofit organizations, local businesses (restaurants, etc.) community members to create ambassadors

                  Votes: 8

                  Volunteers: 2  Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia

Encourage and strengthen neighborhood groups

                  Votes: 3

                  Volunteers: 1  Gregory Fearon

Map neighborhoods that have strong community ties – identify activities that bonds them together

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers:  4  Katherine ?, Alexa Riner, Pamela Van Helsema, Rolland Vander Sluis

Ensure common geographical definitions of neighborhoods between government agencies

                  Votes:  1

                  Volunteers: 0

Invite and encourage attendance to D.I.N.E., a program that brings community members to share a discussion over dinner.

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Activate neighborhood conversations through social networks (Facebook group, NextDoor.com)

                  Votes: 0

                  Volunteers: 0

SRT will develop a resource sheet bilingual to provide to schools and other public places (church, clubs, YMCA, etc).  Start with Latino community

                  Votes:  3

                  Volunteers:  3  Jamie Padillo, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward                 

SRT involvement in ELAC meetings to facilitate and provide resource information including rights and resources.  Pass out 1-page resource sheet that Santa Rosa together creates.

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers:  4   Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward, Alex ?, Rene

Hold community workshops (using issues identified by the community to attract participants) to build skills of residents in engaging the government

                  Votes: 0

                  Volunteers: 3   Rev. Curtis Byrd, Alexa Riner, Lucy Hernandez

Focus on safety in regards to safe bikes and pedestrian pathways within our communities

                  Votes:  4

                  Volunteers:  0

Have a bilingual community website/calendar where residents can see events and be involved

                  Votes: 4

                  Volunteers: 1  Pamela Van Halsema

Communicate with city, county, agencies, schools with public  works with residents for empowerment to annex Roseland to city.  Build Roseland creek greenway and the specific plan for Roseland and Roseland Village Shopping Center on Sebastopol Road.

Votes: 3

Volunteers: 0

Increase Roseland resident voice in city and county planning for annexation and the Roseland specific plan

Votes: 3

Volunteers: 0

Government Capacity to partner with and Engage Citizens (49/6)

Develop a process to ensure residents engagement and organized neighborhoods

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers: 2  Vince Harper, Larry Haenel                 

Ensure governmental capability to increase the partnership for decision/policy making process

                  Votes:  4

                  Volunteers: 0                 

Make meetings more accessible to everyone with different locations and times.  Inform of future action items and issues

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Hold community meeting to influence the government’s process of prioritizing ways to make information accessible to public

                  Votes: 3

                  Volunteers: 0

Establish Department of Neighborhoods with funding for education/outreach and community engagement.  Along with that, the city should adopt principles of public participation

                  Votes: 10

                  Volunteers: 2  Shannon Ottens, Tanya Narath

Create citizen advisory board for city budget

                  Votes: 8

                  Volunteers: 1  David Moll

Ask City Council to discuss key community issues at a specific time listed on the agenda

                  Votes: 11

                  Volunteers: 0

District elections

                  Votes: 4

                  Volunteers: 1  Arthur Deicke

Support candidates who support our goals

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers:  0

Create a mechanism to foster accountable communication between the community and government

                  Votes:  8

                  Volunteers: 2  Gregory Fearon, Rolland Vander Sluis

Schools (12/2)

Actively support community school model (like Via Esperanza) across city

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers: 0

Convene stakeholders to take advantage of opportunity provided by changes to school funding.  Build trust and shared goals around education  (local area plans)

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers: 2  Nubia Padilla, Katie Greaves

The Steering Committee met on February 13th, and agreed to take actions to notify all members of the first and second meetings of the above supported actions, to work to further revise the vision statement, and to implement these actions by providing support to committees outlined above in bold.

First Meeting of Santa Rosa Together held on November 16th at Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa.

Greetings!

The first meeting of Santa Rosa Together was successfully held on November 16th, 10am to Noon, at Lawrence Cook Middle School, 2480 Sebastopol Road, in Santa Rosa.  Eighty-five residents participated in the meeting, and notes from it are included below.

A second meeting will be held on February 1, 2014 at the same time and place.   We can be reached by commenting on this post, and leaving your contact information.

PART ONE: TABLE REPORTS

Today’s Values

---

Sacrifice

Think to the future

Shared ownership

Equality

Compromise

Willingness to change

Nonjudgmental

Share your ideas

Be positive

Compassion

Share truth from heart

Atmosphere of trust

Since of humor

Respect

Open communication

Honesty

Active listening

Boldness

Humility

Hope

Creativity

---

Table 1

What is working

Outreach

• Welcoming youth
• Community building activities
• Community engaging in social media
• Everyone is strong
• Being able to reach to everyone

Not working

• How the government is framed
• Good role models
• Having a name put on you Elsie Allen
• Being able to influence the youth to be more engaged in the community

Table 2

What is working

• Neighborhood summits
• PTAs sponsored events engaging families in school activities
• School initiated forums discussion about Andy Lopez
• Hiring community engagement manager (Santa Rosa)
• City manager putting more focus on community
• Churches getting involved in social justice
• Created a forum to take action on identified injustice
• Church is having existing strong models of engaging individuals in addressing social justice issues
• Social media being used to inform residents and get input
• Neighborhood organizations
• Countywide initiatives promoting shared goals --    upstream thinking cradle to career
• Santa Rosa city schools new strategic plan and community meetings
• Service organizations such as YMCA, Bike Coalition FSA reaching out and engaging the community

What is not working

• People need to feel heard empowered
• Listening hasn't translated into action
• People aren't being invited to participate in decision-making and creation of shared goals
• Not enough humility
• Individuals are self-centered apathetic disinterested
• Life creates challenges to engagement no time no resources exhaustion
• Distrust of government
• Prior efforts at planning collaboration haven't resulted in real change

Table 3

What is working

• A lot of opportunities already exist (boards, committees, councils regularly meet)
• Many opportunities
• Diverse groups exist
• Neighborhoods have a person to reach out to
• Honest desire of elected bodies to be open and engaged
• But are we capitalizing on it
• County talks about city
• Dial it down to micro neighborhoods schools then tangible changes can be made
• Numerous 501(c)(3)'s doing work equals community engagement
• Parents showing up
• Technology central portal to connect with whoever I need to know about XYZ
• Youth get it

What is not working

• More disengaged communities exist than just the ones we hear about
• Poor attendance
• Not approachable to those who aren't embedded
• Same people all the time
• Getting new people engaged
• Not a new issue
• How do you take democracy to neighborhoods rather than expect them to come to democracy?
• City not here today
• People wait until something isn't working to get engaged
• Missed opportunity City Council doesn't represent specific districts
• Unincorporated areas as Islands
• A lot of duplication of opportunity with different measures of success
• Hard to figure out where to go
• If not in the loop not aware of opportunities

Table 4

What's working

• Service organization support
• Interested and informed citizens
• People are spending time volunteering
• Individuals feel connected
• Sonoma County has potential to connect community
• Public officials willing to be seen
• Recognition of own accountability
• Opportunities to express opinions
• Santa Rosa DINE program
• 74% of people are volunteers

What's not working

• Breaking conversations into neighborhoods instead of city
• Elected officials live east of freeway and cannot be part of the whole
• Not reaching the youth community
• Living and creating engagement for intergenerational populations
• Usual suspects show up at community events

Table 5

What is working

• Cinco de Mayo
• Reaching out to other people across boundaries
• Creating events that promote engagements Mendocino garden and other projects
• Creating parks
• Community coalitions coming together

What is not working

• Schools are once again ethnically divided and are no longer neighborhood schools
• Coming together to confront our fears
• Changing age demographics
• Bringing people together that would otherwise not engage

Table 6

What is working

• DINE City sponsored dinner conversations
• People who are engaged are truly engaged
• City publicizes meetings City Council is online
• Some neighborhood associations work well
• Busy people will come together when of interest
• Padres Unidos leadership group
• DIG youth leadership
• Day and Night Festival in South Park

What is not working

• Latino events not attended by entire community
• Isolated provincially geographically
• Public not involved until too late in decision-making process
• Not easy to get answers on mySantarosa.com
• City doesn't always follow through

Table 7

What is working

• A lot of people working together
• Community oriented populace here family oriented strong values on children
• People keeping things going in their community
• Taking responsibility to hear all voices
• Citizens follow through push the follow-up
• voting
• Building relationships at block level
• Santa Rosa Junior College has a website
• New leadership at Santa Rosa City Schools engaged with community and in collaboratives
• Take best practices values and focus on youth
• We have same values it's how we get there
• Get rid of labels i.e. Progressive, Business
• Letting others take credit for good work

What is not working

• The bureaucracy takes a lot of effort to get things done
• A lot of reluctance to sharing power & not even recognized as an issue
• At an early age youth are separated from participation in community
• Paid employees control dialog: in the past lead a community engagement project but not implemented
• Using Brown Act and budget/staff shortages to impede community-lead involvement. 7-
• Problems w/ city attorney, & City manager controlling
• Neighborhoods and neighbors don't talk to each other
• Focusing on differences doesn't work
• Money talks: Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Santa Rosa are getting their agendas met

Table 8

What is working

• Shared information via Facebook, Twitter
• Neighborhood website, online communication
• Immediate access to information
• Resident led website info
• Welcoming committee within neighborhoods
• Identify problem areas such as sex offender in your neighborhood break-ins house cars etc.
• Nonprofits reach out and help create stronger community leaders
• County more community civic engagement
• Better connections to provide services that help change : Health action, Upstream Investment,
• Training
• Programs help students for better future: College prep provide opportunities,alumni share experience,
• Mentors, fundraiser
• Change perception of school

What is not working

• Street lights and lighting (and roads)
• Not enough community events publicity needed
• Communities not set up to make engagement accessible: public spaces, venues etc. especially new parts neighborhoods
• More inclusive multicultural
• Nonequality: Race Class, Economic divide, ethnic divide.
• Ageism demographics divided and segmented
• Missing opportunities
• School segregation : Elsie Allen Mexican Latino, Montgomery White
• We are having fragmented conversations we don't come together
• We keep building the same foundation and never finish building the house
• We have significant class issues
• We get stuck on budget concerns
• We lack understanding of how government works
• We must vote yes or no and the loser doesn't feel heard

Table 9

What is working

• We have a community advisory board and community engagement
• Clear desire to do something that works
• I see people embracing the idea that change may be a good idea
• We have an abundance of hubs to create community engagement
• A lot of goodwill and organized efforts
• Number one in volunteerism we want to be engaged
• We want to involve the youth and they want to be involved
• A desire to create a better future is present
• We have a civic minded business community
• Government officials are willing to engage in conversation
• The neighborhood organizing toolbox is better

What is not working

• Balance for voice online, paid professionals versus unpaid part-time volunteers
• NIMBY versus the right to control impacts our neighborhood not easy to resolve
• Location does engagement require going downtown or can downtown come to Community
• General comments, Table 9
• Youth engagement
• More comfort with where youth are at
• Invite them and you'll know
• Without pressure to conform to adult expectations
• How to bring in new people to community immigrants women
• Expanded definition to being active in day to day activities
• Engagement equals survival work taking care of family can all of those things be held together and equal community engagement
• What is our community definition of successful community engagement

Table 10

What is working

• Join your neighborhood organization
• Tomorrow's leaders today
• Familiarize ourselves with government agencies
• School groups contributing
• Youth empowerment in city and county involve youth voices
• Puppetshows engaging school
• Via Esperanza how to get Spanish-speaking parents involved
• Parents joining to be effective leaders
• Project ELF be involved in keeping people informed about city government
• Social media

What is not working

• People hampered by systems
• Creativity comes outside systems
• Mass printing
• Social media contact only
• Overloaded class sizes
• No local government instruction in schools

PART TWO: THEMES

t

Draft of Themes from Tables (each comment will include number of table, +/- for working, not working):

1. Youth

1. Schools & Families

1. Neighborhoods

1. City/County Government

1. Diversity/Segregation

1. Citizens/Individuals

1. Religious Congregations

1. Community Based Organizations

1. Internet, Social Media, & Media
2. Other, Miscellaneous, or ???

Theme: Youth

• Welcoming youth 1+
• Good role models 1-
• Being able to influence youth to be more engaged in community 1-
• Youth get it 3+
• Not reaching the youth community 4-
• Take best practices, values & focus on youth 7+
• Youth are separated from participation in the community at an early age 7-
• Programs help students for a better future: college prep, alumni share experience, mentors, fundraiser 8+
• We want to involve youth and they want to be involved. 9+
• More comfort with where youth are at, invite them and you’ll know 9-

Theme: Schools &/or Families

• Having a (bad) name put on you (Elsie Allen) 1-
• PTA-sponsored events engaging families in school activities 2+
• School initiated forums discussing Andy Lopez 2+
• County-wide initiatives promoting shared goals—upstream thinking, Cradle to Career. 2+
• Parents showing up 3+
• Schools are once again ethnically divided and are no longer neighborhood schools 5-
• Bringing people together that would otherwise not engage 5-
• Santa Rosa Junior College has a website 7+
• New leadership at SRCS engaged with community & in collaboratives 7+
• Change perception of school 8+

Theme: Schools &/or Families cont.

• School segregation: Elsie Allen (Mexican/Latino), Montgomery (White) 8-
• People embracing the idea that change may be a good idea 9+ (also added in themes: government, citizens)
• School groups contributing 10+
• Puppet shows engaging school
• Via Esperanza, how to get Spanish-speaking parents involved (also added to CBO’s) 10+
• Parents joining to be effective leaders 10+
• Overloaded class sizes 10-
• No local government instruction in schools 10-
• Dial it down to micro-neighborhoods schools then tangible changes can be made (also added to neighborhoods) 3+

Theme: Neighborhoods

• Neighborhood summits 2+ (also government?)
• Neighborhood organizations 2+
• Dial it down to micro-neighborhoods schools then tangible changes can be made 3+
• Creating events that promote engagements: Mendocino gardens and other projects 5+
• Creating Parks 5+
• Some neighborhood associations work well 6+
• Day and Night Festival in South Park 6+
• Latino events not attended by entire community (also in diversity/segregation)  6-
• Isolated provincially, geographically (also in diversity/segregation) 6-
• Building relationships at block level 7+
• Neighborhoods and neighbors don’t talk to each other 7-
• Neighborhood website, online communication 8+ (also in internet)
• Welcoming committee within neighborhoods 8+
• Identify problem areas such as sex offender in your neighborhood; break-ins house cars, etc. 8+

Theme: Neighborhoods cont.

• Street lights and lighting (and roads) 8- (also in govt.)
• Communities not set up to make engagement accessible: public spaces, venues etc. especially new parts neighborhoods 8- (also in Govt. theme)
• The neighborhood organizing tool belt is better 9+
• NIMBY versus the right to control impacts our neighborhood, not easy to resolve 9- (also government, citizens)
• Join neighborhood organization 10+

Theme: City/County Government

• How government is frames 1-
• Neighborhood summits 2+ (or neighborhoods?)
• Hiring community engagement manager (SR) 2+
• City manager putting more focus on community 2+
• Social media being used to inform residents & get input 2+ (also in internet/social media)
• Countywide initiatives promoting shared goals—Upstream thinking, Cradle to career 2+ (also in schools)
• People need to feel heard and empowered 2-
• Listening hasn’t translated into action 2-
• People aren’t being invited to participate in decision-making and creation of shared goals 2-
• Prior efforts at planning collaboration haven’t resulted in real change 2-
• A lot of opportunities already exist (boards, committees, councils regularly meet) 3+ BUT
• Poor attendance 3-
• Not approachable to those who aren’t embedded 3-
• Neighborhoods have a person to reach out to 3+
• Honest desire of elected bodies to be open and engaged (but are we capitalizing on it?) 3+
• County talks with City 3+
• Same people all the time 3-
• Getting new people engaged 3-

Theme Government, Cont.

• How do you take democracy to neighborhoods rather than expect them to come to democracy? 3-
• City not here today 3-
• Missed opportunity City Council doesn’t represent specific districts 3-
• Unincorporated areas as islands 3-
• Hard to figure out where to go 3-
• People wait until something isn’t working to get engaged 3-
• If not in  the loop not aware of opportunities 3- (also in citizens & individuals)
• Public officials willing to be seen 4+
• Opportunities to express opinions 4+
• Santa Rosa DINE program
• Breaking conversations into neighborhoods instead of city(wide?) 4-
• Elected officials live east of freeway & cannot be part of whole 4-
• City publicizes meetings; Council is online 6+
• Public not involved until too late in decision-making process 6-
• City doesn’t always follow-through 6-
• Money talks, Chamber of Commerce, LSR are getting their agendas met 7+
• Citizens follow-through, push the follow-up, voting 7+
• Get rid of labels in politics (progressive, business) 7+
• The bureaucracy takes a lot of effort to get things done 7- (also in Schools & Family)
• A lot of reluctance to sharing power & not recognized as an issue 7-
• Paid employees control the dialog. (In the past I lead a community engagement project, but was not implemented) 7-
• Using Brown Act and budget/staff shortages to
• impede community-lead involvement. 7-        
• More civic engagement on County level 8+

Theme Government, cont.

• Better connections to provide services that help

change: Health Action, Upstream Investment, Training. 8+

• Street lights (and roads) 8-
• Communities not set up to make engagement accessible: public spaces, venues etc. especially new parts neighborhoods 8-
• We lack understanding of how government works 8-
• We have a community advisory board and community engagement 9+
• I see people embracing the idea that change may be a good idea (also in themes Schools, and citizens)9+
• Government officials are willing to engage in conversation 9+
• NIMBY vs. right to control impacts our neighborhood not easy to resolve (also in theme neighborhoods, & individuals) 9-
• Location: does engagement require going downtown or can downtown come to community? 9-
• People hampered by systems 10-

Theme: Diversity & Segregation

• Diverse groups exist 3+
• More disengaged communities exist than just the ones we hear about 3-
• Unincorporated areas as islands (also in government, schools)3-
• Elected officials live east of the freeway and cannot be part of the whole 4-
• Reaching out to other people across boundaries 5+
• Schools are once again ethnically divided and are no longer neighborhood schools 5- (also in Schools)
• Bringing people together that would otherwise not engagement 5- (also in Schools)
• More multicultural inclusiveness 8-
• Non-equality, race/class; economic & ethnic
• Theme: Diversity & Segregation cont.

divide 8-

• School segregation: Elsie Allen (Mexican/Latino), Montgomery (White)8- (also in Schools)
• Ageism demographics divided and segmented 8-
• We have significant Class issues 8-
• How to bring in new people to community: immigrants, women? 9-

Theme: Citizens & Individuals

• Individuals are self-centered, apathetic, disinterested 2-
• Life creates challenges to engagement, no time, no resources, exhaustion 2-
• Distrust of government 2-
• Poor attendance 3-
• People wait until something isn’t working to get engaged 3- (also in govt.)
• Hard to figure out where to go 3- (also govt.)
• If not in the loop, not aware of opportunities 3- (also in govt.)
• Interested & informed citizens 4+
• People are spending time volunteering 4+
• Individuals feel connected 4+
• Opportunities to express opinions 4+ (also in govt.)
• 74% of our citizens are volunteers
• Usual suspect show up at community events 4-
• Changing age demographics 5-
• People who are engaged are truly engaged 6+
• Busy people will come together when of interest 6+
• A lot of people coming together 7+
• Voting 7+
• We are having fragmented conversations, we don’t come together 8-
• We keep building the same foundation and never

Theme: Citizens & Individuals cont.

• finish building the house 8-
• I see people embracing the idea that change may be a good idea 9+ (also schools & govt.)
• Number one in volunteerism; we want to be engaged. 9+
• A desire to create a better future is present 9+
• NIMBY vs. The right to control impacts our neighborhood not easy to resolve (also in govt. & neighborhoods) 9-
• Expanded definition to being active in day-to-day activities 9-
• Familiarize ourselves with government agencies 10+

Theme: Religious Communities

• Churches getting involved in social justice 2+
• (churches?) created a forum to take action on identified injustice 2+
• Church is having existing strong models of engaging individuals in addressing social justice issues 2+

Theme: Community-based Organizations (Non-profits)

• Service organizations such as YMCA, Bike Coalition, FSA reaching out and engaging the community 2+
• Numerous 501 © (3)’s doing work that equals community engagement 3+
• Service organization support 4+
• Padres Unidos and DIG Youth Leadership groups
• Non-profits reach out and help create stronger community leaders. 8+
• Via Esperanza how to get Spanish-speaking parents involved (also in theme: Schools)

Theme: Internet, Social Marketing, Media

• Community engaging in social media 1+
• SRJC has a website 7+
• Shared Information via Facebook, Twitter 8+
• Neighborhood website, online communication 8+
• Immediate access to information 8+
• Resident-led website info 8+
• Social media 10+
• Social media contact only 10-

Theme: Other, Miscellaneous or ???

• Outreach 1+
• Everyone is strong 1+
• Being able to reach to everyone 1+
• Not enough humility 2- (govt?, individuals???)
• A lot of duplication of opportunity with different measures of success 3-
• Sonoma County has potential to connect community 4+
• Recognition of own accountability
• Living and creating engagement for intergenerational populations 4-
• Cinco de Mayo 5+
• Community coalitions coming together 5+
• Community oriented populace here, family-oriented strong values on children 7+
• Letting others take credit for good work 7+
• Focusing on differences doesn’t work 7-
• Not enough community events, publicity needed 8-
• Missing opportunities 8-
• We get stuck on buget concerns 8-
• We must vote yes or no and theloser doesn’t feel heard 8-
• Clear desire to do something that works 9+
• We have an abundance of hubs to create community engagement 9+
• A desire to create a better future is present 9+
• We have a civic minded business community 9+
• Expanded definition to being active in day-to-day Theme: Other, Miscellaneous or ??? cont.

 activities 9-

• Engagement equals survival work, taking care of family.  Can all of those things be held together and equal community engagement? 9-
• What is our community definition of successful community engagement? 9+
• Creativity comes outside systems 10-
• Mass printing 10-