The Miami Foundation Accelerator Grants Civic Engagement

The SFDA is a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to expand digital literacy and provide connectivity to all citizens regardless of income level, throughout S Florida. We believe digital literacy is the single most critical educational tool for the future..

In our global society the development of technology skills has become a necessity for individuals seeking to excel in education, communications and economic activities. People who lack computer skills and have limited educational opportunities will only have marginal employment prospects. This fundamental economic problem has challenged SFDA to use technology to disrupt the dynamics of poverty and enhance the quality of life for residents of our region.

Civil Engagement - Volunteerism - our program seeks to obtain volunteers to paint the picture of the importance of technology is increasing educational, social and economic opportunities for our residents. Additionally, our project provides a platform that enables other non-profit organizations to effectively and efficiently deliver their message to residents.
Economy - our project looks to increase technology skillsets of residents and thereby their employment prospects.

Currently we have 11 Technology Learning Centers in Miami-Dade County Parks providing 108 computers and internet access for use by the general public. Platform has been used by community programs such as enrollment in the Affordable Care Act in 2014/2015. The platform will also host educational opportunities for youth and adults on various technology related topics. The TLCs will be utilized to host multiple "Hour of Code" events in December 2014 that will teach youth computer coding basics.

We represent a coalition that includes the Education Effect at Miami Northwestern High School, the School of Journalism at Florida International University, the Liberty Square Trust, and the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation.

Providing open access to the Internet offers essential opportunities for civic engagement, whether seeking out volunteer opportunities, launching voter outreach campaigns, or running/joining community organizing initiatives. LCDC users will be able to use the network as a portal to both seek and post job and educational opportunities, and through these efforts, contribute to a community that is focused on strengthening social capital.

Because political engagement now relies heavily on digital media, increasing Internet penetration can boost voter outreach campaigns and ensure greater engagement around pressing issues when voters go to the polls. LCDC will create volunteer opportunities as residents build and maintain the Wi-Fi network, and learn of other volunteer opportunities posted to the network such as community gardening, working with charitable and after school programs, and joining neighborhood revitalization efforts.

LCDC is modeled after other successful open Wi-Fi projects launched by a project partner, the Open Technology Institute, in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in neighborhoods throughout Detroit. Additionally, one of the benefits of launching a community-based Internet project like LCDC is that there will be useful metrics used to measure whether or not the project is meeting its goals—among them general usage data, popular access points, time users spend on the network, and the peak times for use.

Urban Paradise Guild, Miami non-profit 501c3, Founded 2008

Missions include
Urban Forestry
Urban Agriculture
Nursery
Experiential Education
Urban Planning & Public Policy

Website: www.urban-paradise.org
Facebook 3000+ Photos

Community Engagement + Volunteerism allow us to impact virtually all the issues identified in the Our Miami Report.

UPG has a uniquely effective Volunteer-Powered organizational model.

We need to scale up in order to engage more Volunteers. To do so, we need the resources to professionalize.

Goal: engage 10,000+ Volunteers every year.

Shaded Pedestrian/Bike Paths enable safe transit and exercise.
Organic Gardens allow Healthy Choices.
Education creates economic opportunities.

Civic Engagement: UPG has thousands of mostly young Volunteers.
Environment & Parks: UPG has ongoing projects that improve 7 locations. Sweat equity is invested 8x per week. All fight Sea-Level Rise.
Experiential Education helps students and adults learn how to learn. Engagement retains talent.

UPG Projects (Gardens + Pedestrian/Bike Trails + Volunteer Work) Improves:
Healthy Choices
Economic Opportunities
Housing Affordability
Pedestrian/Bike Friendly + Transit Access
etc...

New grants allow UPG to add professional staff and resources.

We increase Recruiting and Engagement leading to increases in Volunteerism.

Improved Experiential Education leads to greater satisfaction and more Repeat Volunteerism and Staff Retention.

More resources available for UPG Projects enables greater impacts. We become more effective at protecting Miami from Sea-Level Rise.

Success increases popularity + "brand awareness", and helps us to get more funding.
Repeat from top.

CLS provides learning experiences; build the capacity of college students to lead and serve. Through leadership education and practical application students learn how to become active citizens on campus in their respective communities.

“GIVE 50” will impact the issue of civic engagement. FIU is a major institution in Miami-Dade County with over 6,000 employees, 50, 000 students and 125,000 alumni living in the local area. The “GIVE 50” challenge will use the milestone of FIU’s Golden Anniversary to jump-start a movement of volunteerism by challenging students, employees, alumni and friends to pledge 50 hours of community service to commemorate FIU’s 50 years in the community.

The Our Miami Report states that “Miami metro residents were found to volunteer the least among major metros and young adults in Miami Dade volunteer at a lower level than other major metros.” “GIVE 50” directly addresses volunteerism and will create a model for other major institutions to follow.

The Center for Leadership & Service at FIU has a solid track record of civic engagement. In 2013-2014, CLS engaged over 3,000 students in leadership programs and service activities and recorded over 65k service hours generated by our students. CLS has a database of over 200 community partners and the mechanisms for tracking student participation. This model can be used to replicate the needed infrastructure to facilitate the participation of employees and alumni in community based volunteering

PACT is a diverse coalition of 39 organizations throughout Miami Dade. It is the largest grassroots organization in South Florida. Since 1988, PACT has used the power of its large, organized numbers of people to solve pressing community problems.

PACT’s training for community members accelerates their ability to surface community problems, research solutions, negotiate with decision makers, and raise financial investments. When community members become involved in PACT, they are connected to a network of people from all parts of the County which creates community and allows people to have a voice that will be heard and will create change. When people feel heard and better understand the policy process, then civic engagement increases.

The Our Miami report stated that Miami Dade’s volunteer rate in 2013 is 15.3% and charitable contributions are 1.7%. By engaging more community members in our process, people have an opportunity to have a voice and effectively be a part of the solution to the problems they are experiencing. These effects multiply as PACT's members represent over 50,000 from all districts in the county. When individuals feel that their voice is heard, then they are more likely to be engaged in their community.

Each year, PACT brings out thousands of leaders for Action.

PACT got the Superintendent to eliminate minor violations of the Code of Conduct as reason for out-of-school suspensions. This created a 32% drop in out-of-school suspensions.

PACT got our Commissioners to pass a First Source Referral Hiring Ordinance. It enforces that county contracts in Miami Dade must first seek out qualified job candidates from CareerSource South Florida before searching outside of the county.

I am exactly what the report denotes as a transplant from out of state, an immigrant, I am a working parent, I am a professional, I am a Miami Fellow, I am every woman. With all of that I still want to invest in my community.

While beautiful in its scenic nature, Miami Dade County, home to 35 incorporated cities, can be somewhat fragmented in its community structure and engagement. Today, communities can be disconnected, missing solutions with disjointed ideas and/or redundant structures. This project can bring together people to increase their knowledge about civic engagement and volunteer opportunities to leverage their time and talent as a group increasing the power of eight.

Specifically the project will address areas of volunteer rates and charitable contributions. As we gather to have these times to connect participants will share their experiences volunteering, networking and creating stronger connections.

Power of Eight is modeled after "Dinner for 12 Strangers" a UCLA tradition for more than 45 years. As a UCLA alum I participated and I remember how it brought brought alumni, faculty and students from all generations together to enjoy good food and great conversation. An award-winning program, Dinners for 12 Strangers is emulated by hundreds of universities.

We are two female entrepreneurs, passionate about Miami, focused on democratizing conversations about community change. We want to facilitate increased civic engagement, solution generation, and collaboration for Miami.

We know there are few practical ways for Miamians to engage decision makers. For example, Commissioner meetings only allow a 2-minute comment, and are often seen as a tedious, elusive and low-impact experiences. We are lowering the bar to entry, inviting all people to contribute to the conversation, and then bridging the divide between community voices, synthesizing and highlighting the trends among hundreds of citizens, and bringing those great ideas to decision makers to engage with.

The Our Miami data highlighted extremely low historic volunteer and voter turnout in comparison to our peer cities. We must find new ways to engage people in their city’s future, and to lower the barriers to entry. By giving a low-lift way for people to contribute to the local social good, and by fostering a collaborative space for people to collaborate in local problem solving, we expand accessibility, increase participation, and foster community connection in a previously disconnected space.

The 1st campaign generated 150 ideas in less than 10 days, with more than 600 people in the group. We synthesized the results into a 21 page position paper and are now sharing it with local mayors, library leaders, foundations and relevant parties across Miami to demonstrate the power of community engagement and to infuse new ideas into their process. We made the report a public source of reference, and are finalizing an article featuring the best community ideas for The Huffington Post.

We are about connecting people, passion and philanthropy; enriching the cultural landscape of Miami; and empowering individuals with information & inspiration. We are a grass-roots civic engagement movement. We are PhilanthroFest!

Philanthrofest helps organizations connect both on-line and in real life. We recognize that by helping organizations thrive, they are able to better serve their mission.

By participating in the PhilanthroFest festival, non-profit participants are able to engage Miamians in their cause. Individuals are able to immerse in causes they care about and see how they can help fill unmet needs. Connecting people, passion and philanthropy is a huge step in increasing civic engagement.

By giving residents a platform to meet and greet with over 100 causes we are able to positively effect the Miami metro volunteer rate and push past the 15% mark while increasing the likelihood that they will invest dollars & time into the causes they connect with. Early participation in volunteer activities promotes lifelong civic involvement which is why we are bolstering our attractors for children and young adults. We are creating an engaged citizenry which will collectively elevate Miami.

Brand building and exposure for over 100 causes at each festival; Increased interactions and lead generation for non-profits; Unique fundraising and experiential education opportunities; Exposure for over two dozen visual & performing artists; Community reach via various media including print, TV, on-line radio & social media; Additionally, participating orgs enjoy positive collateral impacts such as growing volunteer & donor base, networking & creating new collaborations with other causes.

We are the Association of Exchange and Development of Activities and Partnerships, AEDAP
One of our great program is the Youth Leadership Program and we want to share the Idea of AEDAP Youth Step Up Initiatives

Civic Engagement needs to start with our youth through mentoring, coaching and empowering them to take the lead, to speak.
Voting should start early and our youth needs to be engaged in understanding the value and the importance of the act of voting. Beside voting,they need to know of the existence of many community based organizations and develop the natural desire to discover and serve.

Youth Adult Vote
We want to contribute in increasing the youth votes

Our program success is measured by a pre and post test.
How does the youth come to us on step 1. The data collected will differ drastically from step 1 to step 4 where at that level the youth will be experienced, will be exposed to the community and be a Transformed Young Leader as we call them. Step Up Initiatives also offer possibility for the successful youth to become a role model and coach for the new enrollees.

HandsOn Miami is a local nonprofit organization that is on a mission to inspire, equip, and mobilize people to take action to positively effect change on our Miami-Dade County community. We have inclusive opportunities to engage everyone in service.

By focusing on developing meaningful youth volunteer engagement, we are helping to foster the next generation of Miami leaders who are well-versed and connected to Miami's challenges and successes.

Volunteer Rate - this project will result in the meaningful activation of a minimum of 500 youth volunteers (5-17 years of age). Combined, these volunteers will contribute 1,250 hours of service and directly benefit 10 local nonprofit organizations, schools, or governmental agencies.

This project's success will be measured by:

1. Number of youth volunteers (5-17 years of age) activated
2. Number of hours of service completed
3. Number of agencies served
4. Number of Youth Project Leaders Trained
5. Surveys that show an enhanced understanding of the challenges faced by Miami-Dade County and belief that, as a youth volunteer, the volunteer has an opportunity to positively effect change within the County.

The Miami Mentoring Collaborative is a partnership between BBBS’ Mentoring Resource Center and multiple non-profits and businesses to recruit and train volunteers, provide diverse volunteer opportunities and create a local culture of volunteerism.

The MMC will reduce inter-agency competition and maximize the number of qualified volunteers engaged in meaningful volunteer experiences. The MMC will launch its newest volunteer recruitment campaign during National Mentoring Month in January. So far 500 volunteer mentors and 50 agency staff have been trained. BBBS’ average match duration in 2013-14 was 31.2 months and the rate of retention was 68%. Using our proven models will increase community engagement through volunteerism in Miami.

Data points addressed by this project include Miami’s volunteer rate and young adult volunteer rate. Specific outcomes include such measures as numbers of volunteers recruited, numbers of volunteers trained, numbers of staff trained in volunteer recruitment and retention, number of new volunteers placed and resulting number of youth served. Through combining organizational resources and purposeful volunteer recruitment and retention strategies, we intend to create a culture of volunteerism.

Young persons who lack a strong relationship with a caring adult are much more vulnerable to academic failure and involvement in risky behaviors. BBBS has consistently documented statistically significant improvements in peer relationships, scholastic competency, grades and risk attitudes. Each year, BBBS/MRC generates 1500 volunteer inquiries. Collaborating to increase civic engagement through volunteering will achieve similar long term outcomes for a greater number of Miami-Dade youth.

Code for Miami consists of a group of citizen developers, designers, data geeks, leaders, and idea-makers. We are all volunteers that contribute our talents toward improving the way our local governments and community organizations use the web.

Code for Miami harnesses the power of individuals who want to create change in the community by providing an opportunity for like-minded people to collaborate on transformative projects that benefit local government, organizations and the community at large. A more civically engaged population is integral to our future and quality of life, and the type of projects addressed during Hack Night impact everything from greater awareness of sea level rise to easier access to legislative information.

Volunteer rates: In our first year of our Civic Hack Nights, we’ve had weekly turn-outs of 5-40 people, with a median of 15-20 people a week donating two hours a night. That’s 2,000 person-hours spent using tech to be civically engaged.

Voter participation and policy awareness: several projects address these topics, such as open source budget visualizations and web applications that track Florida legislature.

Participation of Miami young adults: More than 75% of our attendees are 18-36.

Florida Bill Tracker, created by two core members, was recognized at the White House at an event honoring Open Government and Civic Hacking Champions of Change

MiamiDadeCode.org, which provides the municipal code of the county in an accessible, understandable format
Created MiamiOpenData.org and expanded MiamiWiki.org

Organized Miami’s first National Day of Civic Hacking and CodeAcross; both now annual events

Make civic engagement tangible to young Miamians passionate about tech.

The League of Women Voters of Miami Dade is a chapter of the 94 year old organization that fought and won the right to vote for women. Our advocacy and education projects focus on voter protection and citizens as stakeholders in our democracy.

As our community continues to grow younger it's imperative that the younger generation become engaged in the political process. This starts with voting. Identifying issues and concerns that would move a millennial to cast a vote is the main goal of this project. We intent to find ways to communicate to this group how changes can take place if you take an active role in making it happen and that your vote does count and makes a difference.

The Civic Engagement Goa. Miami-Dade has an engaged citizenry is the data point being addressed. The percentage is high but the idea for this project is to increase this percentage with younger voters. Their low participation in the 2014 midterm election is a concern and a motivator to the League for a call to action. The overall low participation is also a concern.

The Millennial Action project's success will be measured by the increase in participation of young voters in the next two election cycles. It'll focus on young voters within municipalities holding election in 2015 and in the presidential election of 2016. For the 2015 cycle special attention will be placed on those living in the City of Miami. Voter registration drives and issues forums will be conducted as well as a targeted social media network of information.

Co-founder and Creative Interventions + Implementations Lead for Urban Impact Lab. UI Lab's mission is to design urban experiences that cultivated civic innovation. To date, we have worked on various projects & initiatives to make Miami amazing.

It focuses directly on impacting civic and community engagement. Voter turnout has declined steadily in Miami, especially on non-presidential years. Local elections have the most direct affect on citizens, but these elections record ever decreasing voter turnout numbers. Lack of awareness and/or information on the candidates and the issues continues to be listed as a major factor.

The data point this project hopes to address is the "voter participation rate".

Voter participation in Miami-Dade County was barely over 40% this year. Whereas in comparison, voter turnout in 2012 was at 67%.

We would use metrics that capture:
- Count of amount of downloads of the app
- Tracking of citizen engagement metrics ie. how many times the information on the app is shared
- Page views within the app.
- Amount of time spent in the app

Experience Enterprises is a youth led project of The 5th, Inc. The 5th is a youth motivational and educational group which focuses on getting youth exposed to various scenarios to help them discover, develop, and grow in their purpose in life.

The creation of these monthly events and workshops will serve as a unifying tool to bring the inner-city community together. Youth are targeted because they are often overlooked to engage in community events and they are the next generation of leaders. The events will not only serve as opportunities to earn community service hours, but also educate them on the importance of giving back and being aware of social issues. This project is designed to help spark excitement about civic engagement.

The report states that "early participation in volunteer activities promotes lifelong civic involvement." Because our projects are youth led, we believe youth will be more responsive to be involved before they reach age 25. The report also states "young adults in Miami-Dade volunteer at a lower rate than other major metros." With this project of promoting community service combined with a fun event and educational workshops, we hope to improve our county's percentage from what's current.

We put on Open Mic events to involve youth and bring awareness to social causes by partnering with Krave Art, PATH Hip Hop Program. We've partnered with The Opa Locka Community Development Corporation to participate in their Art of Transformation block festival where we showcased youth talent and spoke on the importance of being involved. We have also done workshops, sessions, and volunteered with Youth for Christ, First Priority, and the Casimiro Global Foundation.