EmpowerLA in partnership with FUSE Corps hosted an Innovation Lab for City departments to spark creative approaches to foster civic engagement with Angelenos where they are — and to envision what the Neighborhood Council of the future might look like in 2030. Facilitated by rapid prototyping firm SMALLIFY, teams made up of leaders from departments, ranging from Sanitation and DOT to ITA and the Office of Finance, tackled the big-picture challenges by “smallify-ing” them into more manageable pieces, encouraging the kind of small bets that can be rolled out quickly. The groups brainstormed and surfaced opportunities, using user design-centered approaches and a “yes, and!” mindset to surface everyone’s opinions, before generating smaller solutions and pitching their ideas to the full workshop. Prototypes included:
- Pop-up Census 2020 kiosks to reach underrepresented populations in the next count
- Giving literal voice to Angelenos on the street through sound installations at public meetings
- Gamified-telenovela stories app to alert bus riders of community events, both where they are and where they’re headed.
- A plan to diversify and “hack” NC meetings and agendas
- Print newsletters and volunteer distribution force to reach aging populations at home
As the strategy to launch Los Angeles’ Office of Civic Engagement with our FUSE Corps Fellow Aparna Mukherjee develops, we’ll have more updates on these pilots and our work with all City departments to establish a platinum-standard of civic engagement, supporting giving all Angelenos more of a voice at City Hall. If you want yours heard on this, share your thoughts here.
