Assembly Design & Project Management
For a civic assembly to truly work, everyone—participants and the broader public—needs to trust that the process is independent, fair, and inclusive. A neutral third-party convener ensures:
● Credibility and Trust — clear independence from City politics or departments ● Expertise — deep experience in sortition, deliberative design, and civic engagement best practices
● Capacity — the ability to dedicate a specialized team without pulling City staff from core duties
● Transparency — documentation and reporting that stands up to public scrutiny The City remains deeply involved at key decision points, while the convener handles the complex design, management, and delivery.
Unify America’s Scope of Work & Deliverables
1. Design & Planning (80–100 hrs)
What’s Included
● Designing the overall arc of the assembly (orientation → learning → deliberation → decision)
● Aligning assembly goals with City priorities
● Anticipating risks (low recruitment, accessibility barriers, public skepticism) ● Building in equity and support mechanisms
Deliverables
● Assembly design blueprint
● Written design rationale
● Risk and accessibility plan
City’s Role: Approves goals and guiding principles and provides input on policy context and issue framing.
What Success Looks Like: The assembly is structured to be equitable, clear, and aligned with City priorities, and public confidence in the process is high.
2. Project Management (70–90 hrs)
What’s Included
● Coordinating across City staff, community partners, vendors ● Maintaining project schedule, milestones, and budget
● Providing progress updates
Deliverables
● Master project plan and timeline
● Biweekly progress reports
● End-of-project activity summary
City’s Role: Designates a single point of contact for approvals and participates in coordination with City as needed.
What Success Looks Like: The project runs on schedule and budget with smooth coordination and clear communication between all stakeholders.
3. Agenda Development & Facilitation Support (80–100 hrs) What’s Included
● Designing daily agendas (expert input, small-group, plenary) ● Preparing facilitation guides
● Recruiting and managing the facilitation team
● Training facilitators in deliberation methods and neutrality ● Supporting real-time adaptations
Deliverables
● Daily agendas
● Facilitation playbooks
● Trained facilitator team
● Daily feedback and adjustments
City’s Role: Provides input on themes or desired outcomes and participates in facilitator selection.
What Success Looks Like: Agendas are engaging, adaptable, and implemented by neutral facilitators who maintain participant focus and inclusivity.
4. Expert & Stakeholder Engagement + Solutions Team Support (70–90 hrs) What’s Included
● Recruiting diverse subject matter experts
● Preparing experts for accessible, balanced presentations ● Supporting the Solutions Team (group that narrows the options for assembly consideration) — process design, meeting facilitation, and synthesis of inputs Deliverables
● Confirmed expert roster and bios
● Balanced expert presentations
● Solutions team process design and outputs
City’s Role: Suggests experts and stakeholders and approves the final roster.
What Success Looks Like: Experts are credible, presentations are balanced, and the Solutions Team produces actionable options for the assembly.
5. Participant Recruitment & Support (Sortition) (80–100 hrs) What’s Included
● Designing and managing the sortition process
● Creating invitation materials
● Providing participant support: stipends, transportation, translation, childcare, accessibility ● Setting up communications channels for delegates
Deliverables
● Sortition and recruitment report (demographics, process) ● Invitation package
● Participant handbook and support infrastructure
City’s Role: Publicly endorses the process to build legitimacy and provides mailing lists or contact data as needed.
What Success Looks Like: The participant pool is representative, supported, and engaged, with a transparent and credible recruitment process.
6. Briefings & Materials (60–80 hrs)
What’s Included
● Preparing balanced, nonpartisan briefing books
● Producing fact sheets, infographics, and summaries
● Translating materials as needed
● Reviewing materials for neutrality
Deliverables
● Draft and final briefing book
● Fact sheets and visual aids
● Online resource hub
City’s Role: Reviews drafts for accuracy and approves final publications.
What Success Looks Like: Materials are accurate, neutral, accessible, and fully prepare participants to engage meaningfully.
7. Outreach & Public Communications Strategy (30–40 hrs) What’s Included
● Designing assembly outreach strategy (press, social, community groups) with support from City channels and team
● Creating plain-language summaries for public distribution ● Coordinating with City communications team for aligned messaging Deliverables
● Outreach plan
● Communications toolkit (press releases, social media templates, FAQs) City’s Role: Amplifies messages through official channels and coordinates with local media partners.
What Success Looks Like: The public is informed and engaged, and outreach reaches a diverse cross-section of the community.
8. Final Report & Documentation (30–40 hrs)
What’s Included
● Synthesizing deliberation notes, participant inputs, and recommendations ● Documenting process for transparency
● Producing executive summary and visual highlights
● Coordinating public release
Deliverables
● Comprehensive final report
● Executive summary
● Visual communication products (infographics, charts)
● Public release plan
City’s Role: Approves the final report and decides on release event or strategy.
What Success Looks Like: The report clearly reflects the assembly’s work, is transparent and accessible, and is successfully shared with the public.
Launching a Local Democracy League: A New Era of Civic Problem-Solving Unify Cities
A Moment of Opportunity
Imagine a city where public decisions are shaped not by the loudest voices—but by real, representative conversations between neighbors. While polarization and mistrust rise across the country, we’re seeking local municipalities with the people, partnerships, and momentum to build something different: a civic model that the nation can follow.
Nonpartisan nonprofit Unify America is currently searching for potential flagship cities to pilot a scalable, transformative model of civic problem-solving: the Democracy League.
What is a Democracy League
A democracy league is a new kind of civic institution — a local hub that runs well-designed public deliberations and builds long-term community capacity for healthy, collaborative civic life.
THE POWER OF DELIBERATION
Unlike traditional town halls, where the loudest voices often dominate and public officials receive little usable input, a democracy league offers a deliberative process with:
● Representative Public Voice: Residents are invited through broad outreach and selected via lottery to mirror the city’s demographics and ideologies ● Compensated, Respectful Participation: Participants are supported with honoraria, caregiving, interpretation, and accessibility services
● Credible, Informed Processes: Sessions are facilitated by trained professionals and grounded in comprehensive data, diverse perspectives, and transparent learning, with enough time to allow participants to explore trade-offs, generate ideas, and build shared recommendations
1 ● Commitment from Decision-Makers: City and sector leaders commit to responding to recommendations and integrating insights into real decisions Democracy Leagues serve not only city governments, but also school boards, regional authorities, and major cultural or economic institutions such as libraries, museums, and chambers of commerce. This creates a new civic resource for institutions seeking evidence-based, high-quality, community-rooted input.
BUILDING CAPACITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Beyond running regular public deliberations, the Democracy League invests in long-term civic infrastructure—developing local skills, partnerships, and a lasting culture of engaged problem-solving. With Unify America’s support, the League will:
● Train a local team of staff and facilitators to lead and sustain the work ● Host learning events to spread civic skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and deliberation
● Partner with existing organizations and civic pathways to:
○ Create space for diverse social and service activities that foster connection and belonging
○ Do neighbor-to-neighbor outreach, ensuring every corner of the community is invited to participate
Here’s the overarching goal: To permanently weave thoughtful, informed public participation into the civic fabric of the municipality. That means giving people a genuine, meaningful role in self-governance—and doing so in a way that builds trust, strengthens relationships, and leads to tangible results.
Unify America will pilot the Democracy League in a small number of communities, including Akron, OH, with an eye toward national scale.
Pathways for Partnership
ONE-YEAR PILOT INVESTMENT
Launch a high-quality public deliberation, grow local leadership capacity, and lay the groundwork for long-term sustainability
2 Goals:
● Host one (1) civic assembly ● Add capacity by training local volunteers and/or staff ● Establish initial coalition and engagement programming
Budget Estimate: $500,000
● $250K for an initial civic assembly (design, research coordination, participant compensation,
facilitation,
logistics,
outreach,
oversight,
and
data
collection/reporting)
● $250K for civic training, staff, outreach, and local engagement
City’s Role:
● Provide in-kind support (like event space and expert testimony) ● Staff and local outreach support and coordination ● Commitment to consider and respond to pilot recommendations
Support from Unify America:
● Full design and facilitation of the pilot, including: ○ Recruitment, random selection, and onboarding of participants ○ Creation of issue materials and facilitation of the event ○ Logistics, communications, and synthesis of recommendations ● Professional/ongoing support from world-class partners ● Civic training modules ● Technology and communications tools In addition to services funded by the city, Unify America will contribute in-kind support to co-develop
training,
technology,
and
communications
infrastructure,
and
to
spotlight
the
locality
as
a
national
model
for
democratic
innovation.
Benefits for Residents
Most importantly, what’s the value of this new, deliberative civic infrastructure to the community and
its
residents?
#1: Better Local Problem-Solving
Residents
co-create
solutions
through
rigorous,
equitable,
and
informed
deliberations—producing
community-backed
recommendations
with
real
legitimacy.
3 #2: Rebuilding Trust and Belonging
These
processes
have
been
proven
to
reduce
polarization,
foster
empathy,
and
increase
personal
agency,
belonging,
and
civic
trust.
#3: Measurable Community Impact
Participants
and
residents
experience
reduced
social
isolation,
increased
civic
engagement,
and
more
faith
in
local
governance.
About Unify America
Unify America is a national nonprofit dedicated to replacing political fighting with collaborative problem-solving.
Founded
by
mission-driven
tech
entrepreneurs,
Unify
is:
● Hosting over 26,000 participants in virtual civic skill-building programs, with partners at 200+
colleges
and
universities
● Supporting other cities, including Montrose, CO, in its first civic’ assembly, leading to concrete solutions for local childcare challenges ● Utilizing expertise, guidance, and programmatic elements from partners and experts across
the
globe,
including:
○ Deliberation designers ○ Think tanks and deliberative democracy advocacy groups ○ Leading researchers, authors, and practitioners at Harvard University, Stanford University,
Ohio
State
University,
and
Penn
State
○ Depolarization and bridging groups ○ National narrative and strategic communications partners
Together with Unify America, we can build a local Democracy League that honors our public voices,
develops
lasting
community
infrastructure,
and
leads
the
country
in
transforming
public
decision-making.
4 Assembly Costs Item Cost Notes In-Kind Possible
Stipends for delegates $48,000 Assumptions: $20/hr
Childcare $7,200 Assumptions: 15% potential need for childcare, $20/hr.
Language accessibility services $4,000 Assumptions: Spanish-English live interpretation and ASL interpretation at $50/hr each. ✅
Venue rental $8,000 Meeting space for duration plus equipment rental ✅ Catering and refreshments $10,800 Meals, drinks, and snacks. Assumption $30 per day per delegate
Facilitator fees $24,000 Assumptions: groups of 5 with local and trained facilitators at $50/hr. ✅
Materials, printing, and resources $1,500 Workbooks, handouts, etc. ✅ Expert speaker honorariums $4,000
Compensation for guest speakers. Assumption: the vast
majority of expertise on a topic is provided by in-kind support
✅
FIDE - North America's quality
assurance and technical guidance
throughout design and
implementation $23,000 $1,500 per month for 12-month engagement + travel Unify America (or contractor) design
+
oper
ator cost $82,500
Design, project management, planning and delivering
organized agenda per day of deliberation, selection of
experts (working with the City and other stakeholders as needed for sufficient diversity), invitations design, sortition process, delegate support services, and briefings. Estimate between 500-600 total hours at a $150/hr combined team
cost.
This, eventually,
could be local staff
and the local
Democracy League
Website and online platform $4,000 Information hub, participation tools ✅ Recruitment and advertising $40,000 Mailers, online ads, community events, follow up ✅ -
- up to half
Data collection and analysis $2,000 Surveys, interviews, report writing FIDE's independent evaluation and
hiring of local evaluation fellow $15,000
Report dissemination $2,000 Publishing and sharing evaluation findings TOTAL $276,000
Capacity & Coalition
Building Costs Item Cost Notes In-Kind Possible
Community outreach initiatives $40,000 ✅
Venue and rentals for outreach
events $10,000
Venue space and rentals for capacity building learnings, civic lottery, open house, and public response to
recommendations
✅
Public learning sessions, including
compensation for participants,
partners, and supplies
$45,000
Collaborative problem solving learning program and
capacity building (including local partners, national civic partners, logistics and supplies) to expand civic skills like facilitation, collaboration, critical thinking, and deliberation Catering and refreshments (non-
Assembly events) $15,000 Drinks and snacks. Assumption $15 per person and at least 1000 people engaged
Local contractors $120,000
Stipends for the local project managers and outreach team (trained by Unify America) for long-term capacity building.
These are the local people who are contract employees of Unify America and support the on-the-ground outreach
about assemblies and deliberative public problem-solving in general.
Tools and Technology Technology and creative support
In-kind from Unify America to co-develop training,
technology, and communications infrastructure — and to
spotlight Dayton as a national model for democratic
innovation.
✅
TOTAL $230,000
Assembly size assumptions
# of delegates = 60
hours of deliberation = 40
# of deliberative sessio
n 6
Evaluation
Public
communications,
engagement, and
capacity building
OPTION 1: ONE-YEAR PILOT INVESTMENT
Delegate support
Event facilities and
logistics for Assembly
Program design and
facilitation
Public
communications and
PROPOSAL: One-Year Pilot Investment
Launch a high-quality public deliberation, grow local leadership capacity, and lay the groundwork for long-term sustainability Goals:
• Host one (1) deliberative event
• Add capacity by training local volunteers and/or staff • Establish initial coalition and engagement programming Total Budget Estimate: ~$500,000
Direct Assembly Costs: $267,000
Local Capacity Building: $230,000
City's Role:
• Provide in-kind support (like event space and expert testimony) • Staff and local outreach support and coordination
• Commitment to consider and respond to pilot recommendations Support from Unify America (and/or our contractors):
Full design and facilitation of the pilot, including:
• Recruitment, random selection, and onboarding of participants • Creation of issue materials and facilitation of the event • Logistics, communications, and synthesis of recommendations • Professional/ongoing support from world-class partners • Civic training modules
• Technology and communications tools
A note on additional services
Deliberative Town Halls
• Deliberative Town Halls can be used to define the topic and/or connect the CA with the broader public before or after the Civic Assembly. • This would be done in collaboration with the Institute for Engagement and Accountability (IDEA) at Ohio State University. • A budget can be provided at a later date with IDEA offering significant in-kind support.