A year of action in Deschutes County
Josh Burgess shares how ideas from Oregon’s first citizens’ assembly are turning into community-led change
One year ago, 30 Central Oregonians came together over two weekends to develop 23 proposals for preventing and addressing youth homelessness - one of the region’s most urgent challenges.
Since then, local leaders and community partners have been working to turn those ideas into action. The Deschutes Civic Assembly’s recommendations were shared with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, Deschutes County, Bend City Council, and the Youth Action Board on Youth Homelessness, helping shape a coordinated local response.
The initiative brought together DemocracyNext, Healthy Democracy, OSU-Cascades Laboratory for the American Conversation, and the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, alongside regional authorities and community partners. It was made possible with support from the Quadrivium Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Omidyar Foundation, Ford Family Foundation, and local donors.
To build lasting capacity in the region, DemocracyNext also seeded the creation of the Central Oregon Civic Action Project (COCAP), now led by our USA Program Senior Advisor, Josh Burgess.
For this week’s newsletter, we spoke to Josh about what’s been achieved so far, what’s been learned, and how the project is helping build a more connected, resilient Central Oregon.
You can watch the interview below, on our YouTube channel, or read the transcript below.
It’s been almost a year since 30 people came together and developed 23 proposals for how to prevent and tackle youth homelessness in Deschutes County. How did you get involved?
It was a circuitous route that brought me here, I think. But in the end, I spent 25 years in the U.S. Air Force, and a large part of why I went there was because I came from a family that was very service-oriented - teachers, journalists, and people in the public health professions. My grandfather was also in the Army Air Corps in World War II.
As I served around the world, beginning just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was involved in conflict zones, peace and stability operations, and humanitarian operations. In the mid-2000s, I was a detachment leader of an international coalition force in a peacekeeping operation.
I was sitting and talking with a civic leader - a community leader of one of the battling ethnic groups - and he was telling me that his side was extraordinarily kind and peaceful, that they would reach out and help anyone and give you the shirt off their back. When I asked him about the other side, he very blithely said, “Oh, they’re not even like humans. They don’t deserve to be helped. If I saw someone from their side in the street in need of help, I wouldn’t help.”
I was struck by that contrast. Then I came home several days later on emergency leave because my aunt had passed away, and I found that people within my own family at the celebration of life couldn’t talk to one another anymore because of political differences. That was 20 years ago, and it’s gotten so much worse in the intervening years.
Having left a military career of service, I was looking for another purpose and really wanted to get involved in something like citizens’ assemblies - where there is a deliberate effort to bridge divides, depolarise our societies, and mend our social fabric. That’s how I decided not to sit on the sidelines and instead get started here in Deschutes County.
In general, citizens’ assemblies - especially here, where the process was largely unheard of - require a lot of external assistance. Deliberative democracy wasn’t really known within community leadership or the broader populace. Because of that, we needed support from organisations like DemocracyNext and Healthy Democracy, who provided best practices and the playbook for how to set something up.
But none of it can really happen unless there’s at least one focal point in the middle organising locally. We’ve seen that in assemblies around the country and abroad.
What was your role in this citizens’ assembly?
I was the local organiser who engaged with various stakeholders, secured agreements from local elected officials and administrators, and had sit-down conversations with people and groups - in their homes, with local civic groups like Rotary Clubs and veterans’ groups.
From the planting of the seed when Claudia [Chwalisz, DemNext Founder and CEO] came here to talk about it at a university conference, to 18 months later when the assembly wrapped up and we were presenting to local officials, I was in the middle of all of it.
Let’s talk about progress. We know that the media coverage has been great, but what’s been going on on the ground?
Before we even started organising or fundraising, we made it a prerequisite to have a firm commitment from our local elected officials to follow through - and I have to say, they’ve done a tremendous job.
In the two to three months after the assembly, delegates and I went around to all of the elected bodies and made presentations about the recommendations. After a short break for the holidays, the county commission and the city council held numerous public meetings in the spring, discussing with staff which recommendations applied to their jurisdictions and authorities, what they were already doing, and what more they could do.
By April and May, both entities issued formal responses [Bend City Council and Deschutes County Commission] outlining their priorities and next steps. The cities created a firm action plan; the county’s response was a bit less detailed.
To our surprise, the local school district also issued a formal response - we hadn’t asked them to - but many of the recommendations related to schools, so they decided on their own to contribute. We were really impressed by that.
Finally, something we didn’t expect at all: several of our local state representatives co-sponsored new legislation at the state level to increase resources for youth homelessness. They told us directly that they were inspired, in part, by the assembly.
There’s this real arc - someone receives a letter in the mail, and nine months later they’re seeing their words and ideas being put into action. We probably won’t see the direct outcomes for a while, as it’s a thorny challenge, but the fact that progress is happening has inspired much more participation locally.
Citizens’ assemblies can be quite emotionally taxing experiences, especially when it’s on a subject like youth homelessness. How do you feel those who took part dealt with it? Do you still keep in touch with any of the 30 assembly members?
It was quite emotional, you’re right. I was particularly struck - and many of the organisers commented - by how many of the delegates, at least a third, had personal experience with homelessness, either themselves or through family members.
Because of that, we anticipated potential trauma and ensured we had trauma-informed moderators to help facilitate. There were a lot of tears, but also laughter.
One of the things that galvanised the group most was when we partnered with a group of young leaders from the Youth Action Board - all of whom had experienced homelessness. They shared their personal stories, and it’s hard to think abstractly about homelessness when someone is telling you their experience face to face. That really brought people together.
We’ve kept in touch. I’ve probably spoken directly with about half of the assembly members in the past couple of months. Our university partner, Oregon State University–Cascades, and I brought about a third of them together two weeks ago to gauge how they felt a year on - and their responses were powerful.
Our three objectives were:
Better governance and policies around youth homelessness.
Building civic spirit and local capacity.
Mending the social fabric and bridging divisions.
On governance, they were pleased with the cities’ responses but underwhelmed by the county’s; still, they want to keep pushing. On civic spirit, every one of them has become more engaged in ways they weren’t before - volunteering, joining service organisations, and asking when the next citizens’ assembly will be.
And on mending the social fabric - that’s been profound. On the last day of the assembly, members talked about what a transformational experience it had been - how they felt heard for the first time and had learned to trust and collaborate with people from very different backgrounds. We wondered if that would last. Nine months later, they told us it absolutely had. They still look to their neighbours and others in the community to solve big challenges in ways they wouldn’t have before.
Is there a moment from the assembly that has stuck with you?
There are so many, it’s hard to choose.
At the start of the second weekend, we were reflecting on the diversity of the group. On day one, during introductions, we had a high school student sitting next to an 84-year-old retired riverboat captain from the Columbia River. We had an elk hunter who works at an ammunition plant sitting next to a vegan acupuncturist. You could sense everyone thinking, “Where have I ended up?”
After they formed a charter and began working well together, the question they kept asking was, “How do we know this is actually going to go anywhere - that this is meaningful?”
To help answer that, we invited local elected officials - including a Democratic city councilor and a Republican county commissioner - to speak together about the importance of the process. This was about six weeks before a very contentious national election. Seeing them share the stage and talk about community service really struck me. It showed the power of citizens’ assemblies to bring people together in consequential ways that are missing from our public dialogue right now.
Are the subcommittees still in place? Can you tell us more about how those came about and what their aims are?
In designing the assembly, we built in a short session at the end to help the group self-organise for what they wanted to do afterward. We gave them sign-up sheets to indicate interest - whether in policy follow-up or public communications and outreach.
I’ve continued to assist them through what we call the Central Oregon Civic Action Project, or COCAP. They’ve remained involved: several have done interviews with local media, and many have attended public meetings to ensure their voices are heard directly, not just through the written recommendations.
One lesson learned: I wish we’d had more time to help them self-organise. Me being in the middle of it as the process person isn’t ideal - I’d like to have empowered them more to exchange contact information and designate their own leadership. We’re working on that now, with support from the university, and the effort continues.
Do you have plans for another citizens’ assembly?
Absolutely. There are multiple groups in the community committed to holding more assemblies. With DemocracyNext’s guidance, we agreed from the start that this wouldn’t be a one-off. We wanted to build lasting civic infrastructure.
The City of Bend has discussed holding an assembly for its long-term strategic planning. The county has identified potential topics as well, and we’re also talking with community leaders in smaller nearby towns to strengthen civic engagement across the region.
Our local museum is exploring the idea too, and I’ve presented to several K–12 school groups; the school district is even considering using assemblies as part of its own processes. It’s permeating through the community in a really positive way.
During the assembly, you said that the plan was to “build bridges, open doors, and create spaces for everyone in the community to have a seat at the table and create a future that is thriving and more civically engaged.” Do you feel that’s happened?
Yes - and thank you for pointing out that quote. It’s actually become our vision and mission statement for COCAP.
But you can’t achieve that with just one citizens’ assembly. It’s a long-term effort - a marathon, not a sprint. We’re a large, diverse community, and building that civic fabric takes time.
Originally, I thought we’d create a civic engagement hub just for assemblies. But we found there’s broader energy here for a community-wide civic engagement hub - something that fosters collaboration, resource sharing, and innovation, with citizens’ assemblies as a key component.
That’s what we’re working toward now, alongside our local Council of Governments and other partners. Fundraising and building the structure are the next steps, and we have strong community support.
We’re seeing a lot more in the press about citizens’ assemblies in the U.S. What links are there to Deschutes? Who’s inspired who?
As we look at what we’re doing here in Deschutes County and Central Oregon, we’re very aware that it’s being watched - and hopefully mirrored - by other communities. We’re building something scalable and replicable, while understanding that every place is different.
Our state government is watching closely and considering legislation and funding to support assemblies elsewhere in Oregon. Thanks to strong communications support from DemocracyNext and others - with videos and articles about our process - I now get contacted regularly by civic leaders across the country asking how to do something similar.
It’s fascinating to see how different topics shape public response. Fort Collins, for example, held an assembly on what to do with a piece of land - a seemingly mundane issue - yet it drew enormous passion and debate. It shows that citizens’ assemblies can help communities tackle even long-standing conflicts by simply creating space for people to listen and talk as human beings.
That’s the power of this work. It excites me to see more assemblies emerging, though I admit it also concerns me a bit - because in this age of trolls, bots, and online outrage, positive efforts can become targets once they gain momentum.
So we need to stay mindful and keep putting out a clear message: this is not a progressive-only or conservative-only effort. It’s about all of us, as humans, figuring out how to live and solve problems together.
Thanks to Josh for the interview. Read more about the work in Deschutes here.
📡On our radar
🛜 Are you following the core DemNext team on LinkedIn? After a busy week in Brussels for Democracy R&D, and Amsterdam for the World Cities Culture Summit, they’ve shared some highlights from their recent travels - worth a look:
Claudia Chwalisz, Founder & CEO
Lucy Reid, Chief Strategy & Creative Officer
James Macdonald-Nelson, Cities Programme Lead
Hannah Terry, Cities Programme Coordinator
🤖 ‘Rescuing Democracy From The Quiet Rule Of AI’, read Andrew Sorota’s article in Noema.
🚨 ‘Macclesfield [UK] residents help shape future of local policing’, read about the latest citizens’ assembly run by the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
📍 Discover how R&I-driven democratic innovations scale with ScaleDem’s knowledge map.
🌉 Ieva Česnulaitytė, DemNext’s Senior Advisor (Cities Programme), has published ‘Bridging Divides Through Deliberation’ which you can read on the Democracy & Belonging Forum website here.
🐝 Upcoming events
29 October, online
Join Claudia for a workshop on Citizen Assemblies and AI, hosted by Innovate-US and moderated by Danielle Allen, Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation.
25 & 26 November, Birmingham, UK
Lucy and Ruba Asfahani, Communications Lead, will be attending the Citizens in Power UK Network meeting.
26 November, Birmingham UK
Lucy will be speaking at the Birmingham Civic Society, discussing civic spaces.
23 & 24 January, Berlin, Germany
Claudia will be hosting a workshop on deliberative technology during the Political Tech Summit.