I wanted to share a neat event coming up next week Tuesday in San Francisco. Full Circle Fund is hosting an interactive learning event run by Catalyze SV. Focused on collaborative community solutions to the housing crisis, Catalyze SV President Alex Shoor (who is also a San Jose city council candidate) and Rocio Molina (Catalyze SV Interim Deputy Director) will be leading folks through a facilitated discussion about potential solutions to that crisis.
Catalyze SV is an interesting 501c3 which specializes in helping local governments improve their community engagement to reach the actual full breath of the community. Too many government meetings, town halls and the like fail to be accessible to many of their constituents. These meetings are frequently held at times and locations which are highly inconvenient to key groups. Catalyze SV puts their best practices in a list of 14 principles here. Some of these seem like no-brainers such as “Information about development should be readily available and understandable”, but it’s astonishing how many municipalities fail to take these principles into consideration. Catalyze SV contracts with municipalities looking to do better.
This process can result in communities adopting sustainable, climate friendly models which benefit a wider range of people in these communities. The climate crisis is not just being fought at the national level, but also at every municipality in the country. Encouraging (or forcing) our local municipalities to abide by these principles is something each of us can do.
The discussion being led on the 26th will be focused specifically on the housing crisis. Silicon Valley (the SV in Catalyze SV) is an insane housing market for anyone not making $200k or more per year. California has simply not kept up building affordable housing in amounts needed to serve its growing population. While Catalyze is focused on Silicon Valley, this approach can be used in other places.
I’ll be there and I hope to learn more about it as it gets closer. If you’re interested in going the eventbrite is here and tickets are $20 each. Both Full Circle Fund and Catalyze SV are nonprofits looking to build a better world for everyone.
In the interest of clarity, the host, Full Circle Fund, is led by my spouse Dara Olandt.
Update: I just found out there are a few free tickets. Let me know in the comments or by Kos mail if you’d like a free ticket.
