It was a pleasure to reconnect with the City of Burlingame this year, our first partner in San Mateo County’s Home for All Community Engagement Learning Network. Together in 2018 we piloted a redesign of how to convene local communities for broader and deeper mutual learning about options for addressing the region’s most pressing issue: affordable [...]
For communities throughout California, the question of how to meet affordable housing needs is a perennial challenge. And the pandemic has heightened tensions around landlords and tenants. Through our work with Home for All and cities throughout San Mateo County, Common Knowledge has pioneered an approach that invites community members to share their hopes, values, ideas, [...]
Public agencies are on the receiving end of a lot of complaints. Some may be due to things that are within their control, but several complaints encompass larger challenges, beyond what an agency can impact with its programs and policies. As agencies grapple with how to address this negative input, often overlooked are the parts of [...]
Adult students at California’s library literacy programs have long been some of our most valued co-creators and collaborators in designing accessible nonpartisan election information, such as the Easy Voter Guide. Last year, the California State Library supported a refresh of the Key to Community Voter Engagement Project. Adult learner leaders from around the state came to [...]
As a mother of three daughters, ages 10 to 15, for many years Monica Cañas has been an active volunteer in Larkspur-Corte Madera School District’s Cove Elementary School and Hall Middle School in Marin County. Her sustained efforts led to her being appointed to serve on the school board in 2018. In addition to those official [...]
When it comes to providing information on complex issues, such as housing, it can be hard to know where to begin. Some people seem to know a lot, some not very much and confusion feels prevalent. Click the image above to see a larger version of Half Moon Bay's housing background handout. For the [...]
As cities throughout the Bay Area determine how to address the region’s housing needs, multi-sector collaboratives are helping to guide the way. Over the past two and a half years, Common Knowledge has walked alongside members of Home for All, a county-wide collaborative, as they work to improve the climate for housing decisions in San Mateo [...]
A student from Berkeley Reads looks over the 2016 Easy Voter Guide. "This one is a lot better than the other one," he said. "It is simpler to understand." Busting the apathy myth: an origin story The seminal project that launched Common Knowledge over 20 years ago was the "Key to Community Voter Involvement Project." [...]
Are you frustrated about who shows up at public meetings – or, more importantly, who doesn’t? You’re not alone. A comprehensive and innovative study about the state of public participation in local decision-making in California compared the views of 900 California city and county elected leaders and senior staff with the perspectives of 500 leaders of [...]
