As reported in The Palm Beach Post…

Online ‘public square’ to foster civic-mindedness, fun in Palm Beaches, Martin

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

February 09,

WEST PALM BEACH – The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties will soon launch a new web site that is meant to boost civic involvement by bringing together local residents, nonprofit groups and community leaders.

The site will be a “digital public square” where people can discuss issues like affordable housing or water safety and conservation, Community Foundation President and CEO Leslie Lilly said Monday. 
 
It will also provide links to services for people in need and community news from a dozen partners including The Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, 1000 Friends of Florida and The Florida Public Health Institute. The online public square is meant to be fun as well as useful, Lilly said, with reports and policy briefs along with videos and blogs.

Lilly hopes that the site will encourage a rich exchange of information, and energize citizens to meet not just online but in real life. “For a democratic society, you need to have people involved,” Lilly said.

The project, which is set for a soft launch in April, was paid for with $1.5 million in grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The foundation is focused on improving the 26 communities across the country where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. That list of communities includes Palm Beach County because the company once owned a newspaper in Boca Raton.

In recent years, the Knight foundation has awarded grants to projects all over the country that help local residents get engaged and share information. Grants have gone to a local news site in Connecticut, a statewide competition to find the best solutions to community problems in Minnesota and a forum for Park City, Utah residents to discuss ways to reduce their carbon footprints.

Lilly said she thinks the digital public square is especially vital to Palm Beach County, a big, diverse place with many residents who grew up somewhere else. To help foster a sense of place, the new site will include material from the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, and eventually allow people to post their own historical articles and photographs.

“We want to help people understand where they are,” Lilly said.