Community PlanIt

Community Planit is a community planning platform that uses gamification to diversify and engage citizens that participate in community decision-making. Designed by Engagement Lab at Emerson College in September 2012,^[1] Community Planit is centered around time-sensitive games that help players use their voice in community decisions, as well as community leaders and local officeholders cheaply and easily gain feedback from difficult to reach stakeholders.^[2]

Incentives come in the form of coins which have several purposes:

"Coins function to rank players’ performance in the game, and also serve as a currency that can be spent on "causes" which are local projects that benefit the communities playing, such as college application assistance for low-income youth or funding a neighborhood bike program. Players with more coins accumulated have a greater impact on which causes win.^[3]"

Each game culminates in real life community planning meeting that acts as a "Game Finale."

Operations

Games created on Community Planit's platform have ranged from the neighborhood level to the international level.^[4]

In April 2013, their game tackling Moldovan unemployment Youth@Work gained the attention of the UK news site, The Guardian.^[5]

In March, 2016, Community Planit featured a game about tackling Boston's carbon emissions and sustainability issues.^[6]

Funding

Community Planit is supported by the Engagement Lab at Emerson College, as well as financial contributions from the Knight Foundation.

Other sponsors include the World Wildlife Fund.^[7]

See also

• Engagement Lab at Emerson College