Civic participation, trust, getting to know people: Together Baton Rouge gets things done

Chicago is asking its citizens, including youth, to help determine how to spend public money. Participatory budgeting involves communities identifying their greatest needs and guiding spending towards solutions.

Tulsa Public Schools drew on expertise across many sectors and extensive neighborhood input to address the issue of thousands of empty seats in local schools. Through a community-focused process, they were able to mindfully close under-utilized schools and better maximize the community's resources for students.

Honor the Earth is an anti-data center coalition monitoring the construction of hyperscale data centers in or near indigenous land. Through their efforts, town halls, doorknocking, attending tribal council meetings and more, they’ve formed a community with people in agriculture and beyond, working to push back against data center construction and enact protections for communities. As a result of their efforts, the Tulsa City Council signed a 9-month moratorium on data centers, and the Seminole Nation also unanimously passed its own moratorium.

After a badly needed road construction project was abandoned by officials and contractors, community members banded together to pool their resources and build wooden bridges that made the road passable again.

Through the Park Friends Network, local volunteer groups work to preserve public spaces in their neighborhood and communicate with the city about needed repairs or improvements. More than 140 Park Friends groups have formed in Philadelphia, with many hosting events such as cleanup days, school supply giveaways, and neighborhood meet-and-greets.

Around the globe, countries have taken actions that have helped reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. Although the state of Florida feels the effects of climate change, its state representatives have not produced policy addressing it. Local policy makers and organizers have made the biggest difference in the state.

Through participatory budgeting, New York residents can propose and vote for community improvement projects through their local city council. In one Queens City Council district, more than 2,300 people aged 11 and up voted to allocate funding to five projects, including new trees and sidewalk guards, new X-ray equipment for the area hospital, and a hydroponic science lab for a local school.

In response to a rise in extremist activism in their school districts, a group of parents, students, and educators in the Hudson Valley formed Defense of Democracy, which rallies at school board meetings, hosts workshops on education activism, collaborates with local elected leaders, spearheads petitions, and more. The group helped two of its endorsed candidates win school board elections and has now grown to roughly 1,500 active volunteers nationwide.

The République des Hyper Voisins, or the Republic of Super Neighbors, is an experiment organized by residents of Paris's 14th arrondissement to encourage community engagement, combat social isolation, and improve how the neighborhood functions. The group has organized mutual aid efforts, installed compost collection points, facilitated the launch of a new health clinic, and given residents opportunities to weigh in on local development projects.

As violence between herders and farmers continues in other parts of Nigeria, the Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society in the Ga’ate community has found a way to coexist and benefit from each other. By setting up grazing areas for cattle, using the manure to fertilize farms and sharing security responsibilities, the community is able to grow several crops and provide basic aid to its people.