What you need to know: Governor Newsom will debut a first-in-the-nation deliberative democracy program to help community members directly influence and inform the ongoing Los Angeles firestorm rebuilding and recovery. Engaged California is a new program that will bring together community voices and viewpoints supported by digital platforms — empowering Californians to help inform policy decisions and program design.
February 23, 2025 – LOS ANGELES — Governor Gavin Newsom today announced California’s upcoming launch of a bold, innovative program that will bring
Californians together to engage, interact, and share ideas to help shape government services and collectively create policy solutions. Engaged California is a program to support community conversations about important topics using digital platforms. With this new initiative, the state will lead the nation in deliberative democracy, better ensuring decisions are centered on the people’s voices. As part of California’s all-in response to the firestorm, this pilot program is being launched now for survivors and the greater Los Angeles community.
How Engaged California works
In California, we know a strong democracy takes work. We build it through practices that spark conversation and solve problems. With Engaged California, we will better empower Californians to have honest, respectful discussions on important topics to help create more responsive and people-driven policies and programs. The program is modeled after successful digital democracy efforts in Taiwan, which used digital tools to help increase consensus-building and build governance powered by the people.
The foundation of the program will encourage participation from Californians across all walks of life to interact with each other to find common ground and help set priorities for state government action. The program will help people to directly voice their concerns and ideas, and improve policymakers’ and administrators’ efforts to listen to Californians outside of election cycles and to be more responsive to their concerns…