(Eco)Exchange™ 40: San Diego Civic Engagement Forum
About this Event
What if the decisions shaping your everyday life are decisions you could help shape?
What if the reason your street hasn’t been repaved, your child’s school lost a program, or the bus stopped running by your house is connected to a decision most of us never saw being made?
Every day, decisions are made about our neighborhoods—where money goes, what gets built, which programs survive, and whose voices are heard.
Most of us experience the consequences long after those decisions happen.
(Eco)Exchange™ 40 is where we change that.
Join Sister Cities Project, OneSD, community leaders, and neighbors from across San Diego for an interactive, nonpartisan civic forum connecting the decisions made at the ballot box—and beyond it—to what actually happens in our communities.
In just two hours, you’ll leave with a clearer understanding of:
WHO makes the local decisions that affect everyday life.
HOW residents and communities can influence those decisions.
WHAT you can personally do next.
This is not two hours designed simply to give you more information. It is two hours designed to send you home with something to do.
What to Expect
A conversation worth being in the room for
Hear from four San Diego leaders and changemakers in a moderated conversation about how civic decisions are made, where community influence actually happens, and what residents should understand going into—and coming out of—the November 2026 election.
We’ll explore questions like:
- Who actually makes the decisions that affect our neighborhoods?
- Where does community input really matter?
- What happens between elections?
- Why do some communities seem to have more influence than others?
- What can an ordinary resident actually do?
Then we move from conversation to action.
Following the panel, participants will take part in Civic Power Action Labs—eight interactive working groups organized around KNOW, VOICE, CONNECT, and ACT.
These aren't traditional breakout discussions. Each Lab is designed to help participants identify a community opportunity, begin shaping a real project around it, connect people interested in continuing the work, and establish the first steps toward moving it forward after the event.
The goal is not simply to leave with ideas. It is to begin building something.
Sister Cities Project will follow up with participating teams after the event to help promising projects move toward implementation and sustainability.
Learn more about the Civic Power Action Labs and how to participate below.
You’ll also have access to clear, nonpartisan information about the November 2026 election, local elected offices, public participation, advocacy, organizing, and ways to remain involved after Election Day.
You do not need political experience.
You do not need to already understand local government.
You simply need to care about what happens where you live.
Help launch what happens next.
The (Eco)Exchange™ 40 Civic Action Labs are designed to do more than create good conversation. They are designed to help new community projects begin.
Across eight Action Lab tables—two each for KNOW, VOICE, CONNECT, and ACT—participants will work together around a civic challenge or opportunity and begin shaping something they can continue building after the event.
Each table will work toward leaving the room with:
- A clearly defined community need or opportunity
- A practical project idea
- People interested in continuing the work
- A first 30-day action
- A project lead or small leadership team
- A clear picture of what support is needed next
Potential projects might include civic education tools, youth leadership programs, community voice initiatives, neighborhood coalitions, trusted-messenger networks, cross-community partnerships, public-participation projects, or new civic action campaigns.
Some ideas may remain grassroots community projects. Others may become programs within existing organizations, coalitions, social-impact ventures, or even new nonprofit organizations.
The event is only the beginning.
Sister Cities Project will follow up with participating teams after September 26 and help promising projects move from idea to implementation—connecting people, identifying resources and partners, supporting early planning, and helping teams determine the most sustainable path forward.
Our goal is to see 4–8 viable community projects continue beyond (Eco)Exchange™ 40.
Organizations can help make the Action Labs possible.
We are inviting businesses, nonprofits, foundations, civic organizations, and community leaders to participate in one of three ways:
Sponsor + Action Lab Lead
Support an Action Lab and provide an experienced facilitator from your organization.
Sponsor an Action Lab
Help fund one of the eight tables while SCP identifies and prepares the facilitator.
Community Expertise Partner
Bring relevant knowledge and an experienced facilitator even if sponsorship is not possible.
Ideal partners already have experience connected to KNOW, VOICE, CONNECT, or ACT and want to help residents turn ideas into sustainable community action.
Interested in becoming an Action Lab Partner?
Complete the Action Lab Partner Interest Form and let us know how you’d like to participate. Sister Cities Project will follow up directly to discuss the best fit.
Eight tables. Eight potential projects. One question: What are we willing to build together?
Why EcoExchange?
For years, Sister Cities Project’s (Eco)Exchange™ has brought people from different communities, backgrounds, and lived experiences into the same room to build understanding through proximity, conversation, and action.
This is our 40th EcoExchange.
The idea behind all forty has remained simple:
We cannot understand one another—or build stronger communities—from a distance.
This time, we’re applying that idea to civic power.
Not simply:
What do I think?
But:
What do I understand? Who do I need to know? And what can we actually do together?
Your community is already being shaped.
Every budget.
Every policy.
Every program.
Every street.
Every school.
Every neighborhood.
Someone is helping decide what happens next.
The question is whether you will help shape it.
Join us for (Eco)Exchange™ 40.
Bridging Communities. Powering Participation.
Saturday, September 26 · Noon–2 PM
Complimentary Admission. RSVP required. Read our FAQ about our focus on Civic Engagement. Residents have questions and we are providing answers!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
