SAN DIEGO — Civic San Diego’s Community Benefits Consensus Project is a bold initiative to create a broad-based network of residents, planners, developers, nonprofits and other stakeholders who collaborate to form the agency’s community benefits goals. The term “community benefits” is used to describe the variety of quality of life improvements, amenities and/or mitigations that may be provided to residents impacted by development projects occurring in their neighborhoods. Civic San Diego (“Civic”) believes that collaborative community benefits strategies can create opportunities for economic growth, particularly in historically under-invested neighborhoods.
The initiative is using “MindMixer,” an online engagement technology created by planners, to empower San Diegans to discuss their priorities, collaborate to evolve ideas, and identify shared values for development in their neighborhoods. Individuals can easily register on the MindMixer site. Organizations can partner with Civic San Diego by placing a MindMixer widget (link) on their websites to directly engage their own constituents. Currently, partnering organizations include the Association of General Contractors; City Heights CDC; San Diego Community Gardens Network; and SEIU Local 221.
“This technology will optimize Civic San Diego’s many efforts to connect with and engage diverse stakeholders with diverse perspectives on what’s best for the neighborhoods they care about,” said Civic San Diego president, Reese A. Jarrett. “Already, we’ve received more than 4600 views from 650+ unique visitors. Dozens of ideas have been contributed and commented on. MindMixer will help us to sort through what we’re hearing; to exchange quality information with the public; and ultimately, to foster community benefits strategies that are responsive to neighborhood priorities on a project-by-project basis.”
The first CivicSD-MindMixer survey closed at 11:59pm on Monday, February 16. People can register to participate athttp://civicsd.mindmixer.com for future discussions. Organizations that want to engage their members can email[email protected] for more information.
