The start-up for a local bureau might be organized as follows:

[1] Recruit leadership team

Begin recruiting individuals who have an interest in participating in developing your local community information bureau. Among that initial group you should recruit one or more faculty members since you'll need them to recruit and train students who are interested in public policy research and action.

[2] Meet with community leaders

It's also important early in the process to meet with community leaders from various positions, including non-profit directors, government agency staff and other policymakers, neighborhood leaders, and potential funders in the area. Two examples of interview questions are from the Pew Partnership for Civic Change and ConnectRichmond.

[3] Initial data collection and analysis

The initial local research is a labor intensive process that take a team of students a semester or two to complete, depending on how many people are involved in the process. We piloting this step in Trenton, New Jersey this summer (read more here).

[4] Launch

The launch of your bureau's website and weekly email news update should be a highly publicized event, perhaps featuring an event on campus or in a community setting. It is critical that the launch occur after their is sufficient information gathering for users to access on your website, and that you have the capacity in place to maintain it moving forward.

[5] On-going data collection and expansion of topics covered

On-going updating of the local news and resources content on these websites could be accomplished by two or three students working 5-10 hours per week. But, until we are fully engaged in the pilot phase at multiple sites we will not know for sure. Of course, this figure will be influenced by the size and amount of activity in the state, city, or region covered by your bureau.

[6] Assess implementation and impact