Common Agency
Organization Details
We help people self-organize their neighborhoods socially, politically, and economically - whether it’s to:
host a block party
start a pickleball league
organize mutual aid
plant a community garden
develop time banking
form a childcare co-op
found a community land trust
hold local government accountable
Or whatever it is that neighbors want.
We do this by working with neighborhoods, to co-create inclusive digital neighborhood networks that encourage offline connections and strengthen local decision-making.
Impact Story
We think neighborhoods are the most under-leveraged unit of change in the USA. We think technology can help. Our approach is different from other digital social platforms:
We commit to journey with neighbors to connect, ideate, experiment, and decide on collective actions in their local community.
We began with the goal to connect neighbors digitally. We started with email and text to ensure accessibility and inclusion. We’re building an app because neighbors asked.
We don’t enter a community until we have a deep partnership with trusted local leaders.
We eventually want our neighborhoods to ‘own’ their networks. To begin the process, we regularly meet with ‘Network Stewards’ - a rotating crew of 2+ intergenerational humans - who make decisions about events, messages, and resources on the network.
We hate screen addiction. Network Stewards also host in-person events and matchmake network members with similar ideas (to invite to design sprints) or dissenting perspectives (to invite to constructive dialogues).
We allocate money to set up Neighborhood Funds for neighbor-decided microgrants and participatory budgeting.
We move at the speed of trust (of, by, for, and with the community). Yes, this means we aren’t seeking hockey-stick user growth. Yes, that means we won’t get tons of VC funding 🤷🏻♀️
Diverse Social Enterprise
The TRANSFORM Support Hub is committed to accelerating diverse owned and led enterprises to build more equitable and resilient supply chains.
