Collaborative San Francisco (CSF)

Project Launch Event Held

Collaborative San Francisco's recent Project Launch Event which took place, Tuesday, March 27, kicked the project off with a meeting that introduced new approaches for engaging large diverse groups of people. Community members, local business owners, advocacy and non-profit groups, youth, seniors and city agency staff came together using the methods introduced by CSF to explore trends affecting San Francisco, describe conversations that are needed to take up these issues and identify who needed to be part of these conversations. The group also identified a group of projects which will become candidates for two demonstration projects that will utilize these large group methods in a real life situation. Click here for more info.

The Context: Look at any sector of the city and you’ll likely find a variety of public initiatives underway, with little or no communication going on between them. Many of these initiatives are being led by different city departments; others by non-profits, businesses or community groups. Typically, they are narrowly focused and attract a limited sector of the public mobilized to focus on that issue.  Interested groups face off in an attempt to influence the outcome, while most people who will be affected have little or no involvement or impact on the decisions.

A New Approach to Public Participation: CSF will introduce new and innovative methods for enabling large, highly-diverse populations to work together effectively. These methods are characterized by their ability to include all relevant voices and connect related issues. They make it possible to engage groups of many sizes – from dozens up to several thousands of individuals – in ways that produce effective, efficient and sustainable outcomes while ensuring that every participant voice is fully heard.