Chicago’s City Council just took another big step into the Digital Age — and towards the next generation of city leaders.
Last Friday, we launched Envision Chicago, a new initiative to inform and engage local high school students in the lawmaking process. The concept is straightforward, proven and powerful. Students find issues they care about using a ridiculously easy to use website (ChicagoCode.org), propose improvements to the laws they discover and the best idea earns a $1,000 scholarship.
The truly incredible part? Young Chicagoans and their elected officials are meeting each other on the Internet to engage, share ideas and build a stronger community through smarter laws. As technology keeps improving our personal lives and our work lives, Envision Chicago is harnessing that power to improve civic lives, starting with the generation coming up. Watch the press conference launching Envision Chicago at 1871 Chicago below:
Round one of Envision Chicago is underway in four wards, thanks to the leadership of Clerk Susana Mendoza and Aldermen Napolitano, Austin, Maldonado and Pawar, as well as the generous support of our scholarship sponsors and supporters. The goal is to expand the initiative to include all 50 wards by the end of 2016.
In order to have a healthy democracy and thriving community, we must educate and engage with the next generation of our civic leaders. We must set a strong example of how city government should work. And we must open up our minds to the best ideas for building a stronger Chicago, no matter where they come from and how they’re brought before our City Council.
That’s what Envision Chicago is all about. It’s time for the Windy City’s future leaders to start sharing their ideas for making a cool city even cooler. And it’s time for the City Council to listen, to engage and to bring municipal government into the Digital Age.
Seamus Kraft is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of The OpenGov Foundation.
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