Executive Summary

Engaging Boston is a service plan for Boston reflecting Mayor Walsh’s vision for volunteerism and service across the city. By encouraging residents to come together to serve their neighborhoods, they will create lasting change in the City of Boston. To accomplish specific goals of Engaging Boston, the Office of Civic Engagement will implement two initiatives and corresponding strategies, creating a sense of ownership within communities.

The three key focus areas of the Service Plan are: Neighborhood Revitalization, Youth and Education, and Community Resilience.

To ensure success, we will:

Implement two initiatives, Serve Boston and Love Your Block, impact volunteer models that increase engagement and ensure that existing volunteer efforts meet targeted needs.

Serve Boston will take a two-pronged approach to achieve its goal of making it easier for residents to get involved in their communities. The first strategy is the Patriots for Volunteering Portal, a website connecting volunteer opportunities to interested individuals, organizations, and corporations. The other strategy is a Civic Engagement Ceremony, designed to keep volunteers involved and elevate engagement within the city. Neighborhoods will engage in a spirit of competition for various volunteer awards, and the City will recognize the efforts of volunteers who go above and beyond to make Boston better.

Love Your Block will enhance and unify existing volunteer strategies to encourage residents to take ownership of their neighborhoods. As a resource devoted to neighborhood beautification and cleanups, it will combine mini-grants, year-round cleanups (formerly Boston Shines), and community tool sheds. These programs will be expanded and organized as resources for Boston residents with the help of BOS:311 HotSpot data to locate and prioritize the communities with the most need.

Addressing the Mayor’s priority to promote volunteering, the City of Boston will:

• Align, promote, and expand current City and nonprofit volunteer efforts;
• Track impact volunteer work in the City of Boston with appropriate metrics; and
• Cultivate deeper relationships with neighborhoods as a civic engagement strategy.