Mission/Goals/StrategyReCitizen fosters economic growth of the people, by the people, and for the people (and wildlife). (apologies to Abraham Lincoln) ReCitizen isn’t just about providing tools for quicker, easier, better community revitalization. Nor is it just about launching green, social, and restorative enterprises. ReCitizen is about enabling possibilities. It’s about making our lives and our communities as close to ideal as possible. It’s about building on community strengths. It’s about turning social problems and blighted properties into restorable assets…the ingredients of revitalization.The Challenge and Solution for All of Us: Most folks believe our public and private institutions have failed us, and are getting worse every year. * Public institutions—funded to solve local, national, and global problems—are seen as change-resistant, narrowly-focused, risk-averse, and putting self-preservation over innovation. * Corporations are required by law to maximize returns to investors…often damaging society and the environment as a result. Even enlightened business leaders are constrained by this rule. * News media thrive on political advertising, and are seen as fomenting social division to boost revenue ($10 billion of U.S. political ads in 2012 alone; $18 per adult in 2000 vs. $42 in 2012). * Politicians—even good ones—are usually portrayed as inept, divisive, or corrupt. The system forces them spend more time (about 80% on average) raising funds for reelection than governing. * Most innovation and productive action happens at the local level, yet power and funding is concentrated at higher levels of government. * Creating a world of restored natural resources, regenerative businesses, and revitalized communities requires a way to bypass those real and perceived obstacles, not fight them, or wait for them to change. Our Revitalization Tools are designed to help you do exactly that. As a recitizen, you can use these tools—via your computer or smart phone—to quickly and easily suggest neighborhood renewal projects or enterprises, obtain community feedback on them, get them funded, and launch them with significant local support. Please join us now.ReCitizenRCReCitizen’s Promise: ReCitizen is the community revitalization program that’s “owned” by the community, not by politicians or developers. Politicians and developers come and go, and don’t always have the community’s long-term interests—or the needs of all citizens—at heart. We don’t sell our software to government. This way, it’s up to citizens to engage trusted public agencies and developers, not to rely on them to engage citizens when it’s convenient or politically expedient for them to do so. It also means that your local revitalization program can’t be shut down or interrupted by changes of political administrations, or by public funding crises. Revitalization is best done by communities, not to them.RecitizensRecitizens in Active Communities worldwide have access to our online Revitalization Tools™, an integrated suite of crowdmapping, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding tools. These enable citizens to do what public and private institutions can’t: quickly identify and launch regenerative local enterprises and projects. Our Revitalization Tools integrate these isolated activities into a comprehensive, ongoing, citizen-led regeneration program, thus create rapid, resilient renewal.Ideal lives and ideal local neighborhoodsAdvancing a global restoration economy—to renew our natural, built, and socioeconomic environments for all—by enabling and linking local citizen-led regeneration projects.Public GoodThanks to the widespread failure of our public and private institutions to safeguard the public good, our standards and expectations have been greatly lowered in recent years as regards our quality of life, the vitality of our economies, and the health of our natural environment. It’s time to raise them again, and only you know what an ideal life or an ideal local neighborhood would look like. Anything is possible.NeighborhoodsToolsBut aspirations, visions, and dreams can only take us so far. To change our behavior and our reality requires appropriate tools.ProjectsCreate a global network of citizen-led renewal projects that fosters a trillion-dollar grassroots restorative development industry by cooperatively identifying, mapping, designing, and funding the renewal of restorable assets in communities worldwide.1PeopleThe PlanetCitizensCooperationFoster cooperative institutions that support citizen-led renewal projects. 2Public AgenciesInstitutionsOnce citizen-led renewal initiatives have sufficient momentum and public support, trusted institutions can be invited to support and expand them. By allowing citizens and institutions to focus on what they each do best: 1) institutional risk is minimized, 2) regenerative innovation and action is maximized, 3) new financial resources are tapped, and 4) the public’s shared vision of their desired future is advanced.Institutions thus back only projects with strong public support and pre-existing momentum. This increases the safety, quantity, and quality of projects supported by these institutions, and increases access to impact investments from foundations and state/federal agencies. Speed, innovation, and safety in thus injected into the community renewal process by reducing bureaucratic inertia and adding entrepreneurial energy.RedevelopmentHelp private redevelopers identify great local project opportunities that enjoy real public support.3Redevelopers2013-08-09http://www.recitizen.org/mission-goals-strategyOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net