<aside> 💡 STATUS: Ideation phase - many things in this document will evolve!

Please don't hesitate to leave comments / questions / ideas / reactions / provocations here!

Last updated: 2022-06-17

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ℹ️ The Gist

What is the thing you are designing?

• A civic-tech-powered regenerative initiative to empower youth of a local community (likely Chicago) to revitalize their neighborhood and empower their fellow community members 🌞
• This would likely be a partnership between SocialWorks, How to Citizen, Helm, Big Green, and other forward-thinking + regenerative organizations that recognize the value of demonstrating to the world the power of Gen Z x minority empowerment x local civics x web3 x other civic tech
  • We’d also probably want to partner with a local library [system?] + a high school [system?] too
• Gary Sheng will be the main driver of this—at least in the beginning
• This project will regenerate city blocks (neighborhoods) 🌆, and because of world-class storytelling around this project, the world’s faith in sectors and generations to collaborate to make real-world impact 🤝 and their faith in web3 and technology to do good in the world 🌱 will be (re-)generated.
• We will use the success / learnings of this first pilot to help more block clubs get launched—5 years from now we want to have seen 1,000s of block clubs be launched

What will be happening in and around the first Block Club?

In short, money will be raised for a group of civic-minded youth in a neighborhood to decide what to do with it.

In detail...

• The forming of a real sense of community amongst the young Builders at the center of the Block Club
• The forming of a digital community of supporters/patrons
• The forming of an ecosystem of corporate, government, and civil society partners contributing/donating funds and other resources to support the Builders
• The Block Club Builders attend weekly Civic Superhero Learning Sessions on topics like
  • Personal development
  • Community building
  • Systems thinking
  • Democratic Theory
  • Debrief on their local civic and political system
  • Storytelling (e.g. social media, documentation)
  • DAOs + NFTs
  • Regenerative Practices/Lifestyle
  • Meta-Crisis
• The Block Club Builders proposing “Quests” to collectively work on (mostly one at a time), such as…
  • Beautifying their school
  • Installing donated computers in their local library
  • Raising money to improve the local library (and turn it into more of a community center)
  • Developing partnerships with local civil society orgs to orchestrate activities on their Block
  • Developing partnerships with training organizations (e.g. arts, tech) to give scholarships to Block Club members
  • Developing partnerships with tech companies to get tech for the Block Club
  • Organizing town halls for local political leaders to hear from members of the Block Club (and other neighbors)
  • Develop an accountability system with direct political leaders (alderpeople, council people, city council, committee members)
  • Organizing Block Parties with artists, celebrities, and influencers
  • Developing and evolving their Block Club governance system
• The filming of weekly vlogs