BEND, OR - Members of the region's first Civic Assembly will be selected by lottery Thursday evening. Central Oregon Civic Action Project Executive Director Josh Burgess the drawing won't be specific names of those who responded, but statistically-diverse groups of names, based on where people live, their gender, race, and political affiliation. "We are not trying to seed the assembly with people of one political ideology or another. In fact, it's the opposite," Burgess tells KBND News, "If we just put all of their names in a pool, we could get everyone who is a white, Republican male who lives in Redmond."

This first assembly will meet this fall to discuss youth homelessness and potential ways to tackle the issue. "The assembly is not just a group of people coming together to talk. They are doing some deep, deep learning, some deep deliberation and coming up with recommendations that will influence the way we approach solutions to this challenge moving forward," says Burgess. Bend City Councilors and County Commissioners support the pilot project, "They are not running it. They're separate from it. But they've agreed that when those recommendations come back, they will actually publicly deliberate on them and decide whether they agree, and whether they'll put into implementation those recommendations."

Thursday evening's event starts at 6 p.m. at the downtown Bend library and includes elected leaders and a presentation on how assemblies work. "And then, most importantly," says Burgess, "We'll have partners from the Youth Action Board, who are an impressive group of young people. Right now, with work with COIC - the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council - they are actually making decisions on how to prioritize resources for youth homelessness solutions, here. This is a group of young people who are actually experiencing that right now; or have."

Click HERE to listen to our full interview with COCAP's Josh Burgess. 

File photo: A citizen assembly meets in Ireland.