Do your friends ask your opinion on issues in your Akron neighborhood? Have you ever been told that you have community-changing ideas?
If that’s the case, and you’re an adult resident of the city, your two cents could be worth $1,000.
After more than a year of discussion with Akron’s city leaders and community members, Unify Akron has launched a campaign to establish the city’s first-ever Civic Assembly.
Unify Akron’s Civic Assembly will consist of a group of local residents who will examine a national issue —– the first assembly will focus on housing —– at the local level and develop ways to implement solutions in Akron. Subsequent Civic Assemblies will focus on other topics chosen by the community.
During a Jan. 6 press conference, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and Morgan Lasher, an Akronite who is the chief of U.S. Democracy Leagues at Unify America, signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on this program.
Unify America works to “create experiences that reduce political polarization, teach critical civic skills and give people across the country a chance to make their voices heard,” according to its website. Unify America is collaborating with Unify Akron to create the Civic Assembly.
After organizing an assembly in Montrose, Colorado, Lasher said, Unify America started a national search to find a city where the organization could commit to at least three years of running a Civic Assembly.
Akron was at the top of Lasher’s list.
“We took several months to make that decision,” she said. “We did a bunch of trips and visits to Akron, and it became very obvious to everybody else.”
How do Civic Assemblies work? How do I join?
“A Civic Assembly literally has three components,” Lasher said. “It’s about people, it’s about process and it’s about power. Civic assemblies have been used across the globe to change policy, to increase trust between neighbors, between governments — even to change constitutions.”
To ensure the assembly accurately represents the City of Akron, interested residents are being encouraged to sign up online. Participants — 65 in all — will be randomly selected in a lottery. They will meet once a week from mid-March until mid-May to study the local housing landscape.
“That table is going to be a mini Akron,” Lasher said.
In exchange for their time and efforts, each member of the Civic Assembly will receive a $1,000 stipend. A civic concierge also will be available to members to remove barriers and make their participation possible — whether it’s providing transportation to meetings or offering child care so they can attend.
Unify America is also looking for donors to help fund the program in Akron. Donations are tax-deductible and will directly support Unify Akron.
How will participants’ opinions be considered and put into effect?
“This is not a report that sits on a shelf and collects dust,” Lasher said. “This is about action.”
Unify Akron’s website says the Civic Assembly will be supported by teams that look at: accountability; evaluation and impact; outreach; research; deliberation and support; and commissioning and solutions.
Once the Civic Assembly finalizes its ideas on how to shape and update Akron’s housing landscape, these support teams will help to “steward them forward into action,” Lasher said. Recommendations will be presented to city officials in mid-May, and they will either be accepted or rejected.
Malik said the city regulates housing conditions, enforces those regulations and helps set policy on how housing is developed throughout Akron.
“Unify Akron is such an exciting thing to be a part of. From the beginning, we’ve tried to make engagement a central part of everything we do in our administration,” he said. “ … We are having difficult conversations because we think it will result in better outcomes because, frankly, we all have to do it together.”
Signing an MOU to partner with Unify Akron, Malik said, “puts those commitments into writing.”
Why do citizens’ opinions matter?
J. Cherie Strachan, director of the University of Akron’s Ray Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and a member of Unify Akron’s accountability team, said a robust, healthy electorate has to be deliberative.
“We have to rebuild a deliberative public sphere,” she said. “But this time, it has to be inclusive. It can’t be segregated, and it has to work for everyone because that’s why it fell apart in the first place.
“Here’s a way to be involved, and that’s why I’m so excited — I see someone doing it right.”