BEND, OR -- Central Oregon's first Civic Assembly meets this fall to discuss solutions for youth homelessness. The Central Oregon Civic Action Project (COCAP) is recruiting 30 people to take part.  

"We're trying to reach as broad a swath of the community as possible, of Deschutes County, so we sent out 12,500 invitation letters," says COCAP Director Josh Burgess. He tells KBND News they were sent to random addresses, "We don't want there to be any perception that we are taking a hand in choosing who's involved. And then, once those people receive these mailings, anyone in the household who's 16 years and older can respond." The invitations also request demographic information, to make sure the assembly represents a cross-section of the county. An additional 250 invitations were sent to shelters, for members of the houseless community to take part. 

Burgess says this first assembly is a pilot project to see who chooses to participate and how local governments utilize the recommendations that come from the group. The topic was carefully selected, "It's probably no mystery to people in the local area that this is a challenge across the region and the state. But what many people might not know is we actually have some of the highest rates of youth homelessness in the state and even in the country."

Assembly members are compensated for their time, transportation and childcare needs. "Some people don't want to participate in this, and that's fine," says Burgess, "But, too many times, those who have access to government are the same folks all the time - the ones who have the resources and the time, or maybe periodically are angry enough to show up at a city council meeting. We want to give more people that opportunity."

In August, 30 people will be selected from among the responses. They'll hear from experts over two days in September, then they'll meet again in October to create recommendations, "Their task will shift to becoming like a decision-making body. They will actually deliberate on what they believe the priorities should be." He adds, "It will be facilitated by professional moderators, but it's really like a small legislature or like a small council." 

At least 75% of the group must agree on the recommendations. Burgess says local officials have agreed to consider what's published by the assembly.