Now’s the Time for Civic Innovation, Chattanooga

Jun 19 2014

Chattanooga has SO MUCH to be proud of. We’ve made great strides in recent history, attracting loads of well-deserved praise, new residents, and a can-do attitude across generations. Many of our greatest achievements grew out of ideas individual citizens dreamed up in their own head.

At the same time, we know that we still have plenty of work left to do. If Chattanooga wants to continue making the same level of progress we made in the past 30 years, we need a place and a process that drives civic innovation as the means to achieve social change.

Civic innovation happens when citizens engage one another in improving their community by creating a novel solution to a social problem or challenge. — Ann Coulter, Benwood Community Voices Blog

Until now, no central platform has existed in Chattanooga to promote civic innovation, nor have we had an organization charged with driving the conversation, coordinating various efforts, implementing good ideas, and investing in people who have the energy to make a difference.

That this has been missing is crucial because Chattanooga faces increasingly complex social problems with limited financial resources to tackle them. Our traditional institutions — government, businesses, foundations, and nonprofits — have to do more with less, creating a growing demand to leverage ideas, collaborate, and engage people in problem solving in innovative, more creative and efficient ways.

Enter: Causeway.

Causeway started as an online platform that connected unmet needs with people who wanted to help — a website where people with ideas could drum up funding and support, and those who wanted to help could decide how to pitch in.

We’re still all about Chattanoogans helping Chattanoogans, but we’re expanding how we do that. Causeway is moving from an exclusively online platform to one that is present in the city. We aim to be a hub where people can share resources and ideas, learn from one another, and create the change they want to see in our community.

We’re stepping up our activity, focusing on providing opportunities for people to engage in Chattanooga. Stay tuned over the next few months, as we pilot several new initiatives with the goal of creating a network of people committed to improving our city.

In the mean time, we want to hear from you. Get in touch with us about how you’d like to see us help Chattanooga. You can join the conversation online through twitter and email, or you can always go old fashioned and pick up the phone (423) 521–5554. However you choose, we want to hear your ideas for Chattanooga.

Originally published at www.causeway.org on June 18, 2014.