“It’s really hard for me as a city councilor to understand how the majority of the people feel about something and what solutions they have without putting absolutely everything to a vote, and I think this is a really excellent way of popping that bubble.” - Megan Perkins, Bend City Councilor
Over two weekends in September and October 2024, 30 people in Central Oregon worked to develop 23 proposals for how to prevent and tackle youth homelessness.
Watch the short documentary about the Deschutes Civic Assembly.
Central Oregon has among the highest rates of homelessness among youth and families in the country, and these numbers have risen dramatically since 2020.
The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, Deschutes County, Bend City Council, and the Youth Action Board on Youth Homelessness received recommendations from the Deschutes Civic Assembly to help address this issue.
The initiative was a collaborative effort between DemocracyNext, Healthy Democracy, OSU Cascades Laboratory for the American Conversation, and the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, together with the public authorities mentioned above. It was supported by Quadrivium Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Omidyar Foundation, Ford Family Foundation, and local donors.
To help ensure local connection and sustainability for the initiative, DemocracyNext seeded the creation of the Central Oregon Civic Action Project (COCAP), led by our USA Program Senior Advisor Josh Burgess.
Read more on the COCAP Website
