CityClub’s Fall 2009 Community Matters Campaign (CMC) involved over 7,200 individuals, organizations and community groups who participated in forums, surveys, face-to-face and on-line dialogues and debates about this year’s focus topic: The Seattle Foundation’s 2008 Healthy Community Report findings on the state of education and economic opportunity in King County. The Community Matters Campaign addresses CityClub's goal to connect citizen input to leadership decisions and public policy. For the full report, click here. For a summary of what we heard from the participants, read on!

1.    Concern about declining educational opportunity in King County is urgent. CMC participants perceive a system in crisis with growing disparities in access and achievement — from early learning through higher education and worker retraining — exacerbated by current budget challenges to state and local governments.

2.    Educational challenges cannot be addressed in isolation from other basic needs — e.g. affordable housing and transportation — and related problems.

3.    Participants of all ages voiced a passionate call for reinvestment, leadership and integration of efforts to insure that all sectors of our community own educational excellence as an urgent, shared responsibility and goal.

4.    We heard broad ambivalence about Seattle Public School Board’s recent adoption of new student assignment plan boundaries — concern that students will be locked into schools that don’t fit their needs and that existing disparities will only be worsened for at-risk youth at already disadvantaged schools.

In response to these findings, CityClub is disseminating this report to community leaders, the public and the media for their use in deliberation and policymaking, philanthropy and community service. We presented six awards to community organizations advancing education and economic opportunity. We are incorporating CMC feedback to shape our 2010 education forums. We are developing new partnerships that promote youth civic engagement and bring youth voices to policymakers.