Morgan Berman is a Philadelphia-based entrepreneur and community leader working at the intersection of technology, civic life, and social impact. She is the founder of Glitter, a neighborhood-based street-cleaning platform that enables residents and businesses to collectively fund recurring litter removal while creating paid local jobs. Her work explores community agency, public space, and a deceptively simple question: when something needs doing in our cities, whose responsibility is it?

New York City’s Office of Mass Engagement brings the practices of grassroots organizing into City Hall, seeking to move public engagement beyond meetings and feedback sessions toward sustained participation in governing. Created by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in 2026, the office asks what happens when residents are treated not as an audience for government, but as active participants in it.

The Boston Office of Civic Organizing works to make it easier for residents to participate in civic life and take action in their neighborhoods. Its programs range from civic leadership and neighborhood events to micro-grants, mobile City Hall services, and Love Your Block, which supports resident-led neighborhood cleanups. The office describes its role as reducing barriers to civic participation and helping residents “connect, collaborate and take action.”

Antanas Mockus is a mathematician, philosopher, educator, and former mayor of Bogotá who used mimes, humor, symbolism, art, and social experiments to explore a radical idea: that cities can intentionally cultivate how citizens behave toward one another.

Detroit SOUP brought neighbors together over a shared meal to hear local ideas, pool small contributions, and collectively fund projects making Detroit better.

Amy Kaherl is a Detroit-based community organizer who helped build and lead Detroit SOUP, the celebrated microgranting dinner that brought people together over a shared meal to hear ideas for improving their city and collectively decide which ones to fund. Building on a participatory dinner model that originated in Chicago, Amy and her collaborators helped turn Detroit SOUP into a powerful local institution—and an approach that would itself inspire similar gatherings around the world—demonstrating how food, small amounts of money, and a simple act of gathering can create meaningful opportunities for civic participation and connection.

Vote Every Day is a civic-minded board book for grown-ups by Evan Weissman, built around the idea that democracy is something we practice continuously—not simply something we do at the ballot box. Playful, provocative, and deliberately accessible, it turns civic participation into an everyday proposition.

Tax Day Carnival was one of Warm Cookies of the Revolution’s playful experiments in civic engagement, using the familiar ritual of Tax Day as an invitation to talk about public money, shared priorities, and democracy. It reflects Evan Weissman’s larger idea that civic participation can be social, creative, and fun.

Warm Cookies of the Revolution was Denver’s “civic health club,” founded by artist and organizer Evan Weissman. Through gatherings combining art, conversation, food, games, and unexpected formats, it created approachable ways for people to wrestle with public issues and practice democracy together.

Evan Weissman was a Denver-based artist, organizer, and civic provocateur who founded Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a “civic health club” that used art, culture, conversation, and a healthy dose of playfulness to get people engaged in civic life. His work explored how democracy could become something people actively practice together—not simply something they participate in at election time.

Mara Mintzer helped found Growing Up Boulder (GUB) in 2009. A passionate advocate for child-friendly cities, Mara presents and writes internationally on the topic of engaging young people in inclusive community planning and development. Her expertise in engaging children and youth in meaningful ways to shape their own cities is requested by government and community organizations around the world.

Growing Up Boulder brings children and young people directly into the planning and design of their communities. Founded in 2009, the nonprofit works with schools, government, designers, and families to ensure young residents have a meaningful voice in decisions about the places where they live.

The Urban Design Forum brings together people across design, planning, development, government, advocacy, and civic life to shape the future of New York City. Through programs, fellowships, policy initiatives, and neighborhood partnerships, it treats citymaking as a collaborative civic practice.

PlacemakingJax is a Jacksonville-based initiative that uses arts, culture, and creative placemaking to bring people together and strengthen the city’s neighborhoods and public spaces. Through public art, events, activations, and community partnerships, the program creates opportunities for residents to experience Jacksonville in new ways while supporting local artists and a more vibrant public realm.

Iffat Baki Bushra is an urban and transportation planner whose work explores infrastructure, mobility, and community participation. She joined Sidewalk Ballet to share her research on a remarkable submersible embankment in Sunamganj, Bangladesh, where local knowledge and community participation are integral to adapting infrastructure to the rhythms of the landscape.

SPUR — the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association — is a nonprofit public policy organization. We bring people together from across the political spectrum to develop solutions to the big problems cities face. Based in San Francisco, San José, and Oakland, we are recognized as a leading civic planning organization and respected for our independent and holistic approach to urban issues.

A project of SPUR was featured in Episode 3