CivicSteaks — Cheesy, Low-Stakes Community Engagement

Let's plan an event together

CivicSteaks is a project to bring cheesy, low-stakes community engagement to Philly clubs. We partner with local clubs to design one creative, playful event that helps your members explore and take action on a local issue you care about. Our custom chatbot helps you come up with a creative idea aligned with your club and then we help bring that idea to life by offering event planning, connections to civic experts, and in some cases, fundraising support.

What is a Cheesy Civic Event?

Every club or group's version of "whimsy" looks different. Not every event is a big spectacle — it should match your vibe.

Stitch & Bitch & Build A Civic Craft Circle with a Decision-Maker

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Your knitting club hosts a cozy, candle-lit "Stitch & Bitch" night, but instead of venting about pattern disasters, you're unpacking a real local issue that affects your community like public library funding, a neighborhood zoning change, transit access, or a school board decision. Everyone knits while a relevant local official, like a parks commissioner, school board rep, or agency staffer, joins the circle, hears your opinions, and shares how you can get more involved.

Dad Field Day for Better Play Competitive Dad Games for Playground Funding

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A ridiculous, high-energy Dad Olympics featuring Diaper Bag Toss, Juice Box Chug, and a Stroller Relay Race. Each event includes a playful sign explaining how city playground funding works — including what department controls it, what the budget looks like, and what improvements are currently proposed or needed. The civic move is to circulate a neighborhood petition to support a specific playground funding proposal and deliver it to your city councilor's office.

Trash Safari: The Urban Artifact Hunt A Rollerblading Expedition into the City's Weirdest Waste

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A costumed rollerblading "safari" through the city to discover and catalog the strangest, most mysterious pieces of trash. Compete to find trash in categories like "Most Confusing Object," "Vintage Artifact," and "Why Is This Here?" After mapping litter hotspots from the Safari, the club submits a documented report (with photos and location pins) to the Streets Department to request additional trash cans or servicing in the most impacted areas.

How to Use Civicsteaks

Tell us about your Club.

Share some basic information like what your club does together, how many people are members, and where you guys meet. The Civicsteaks bot will create event ideas that are relevant and customized to how your club already gathers.

How to help Philly.

Let us know what you care about in your community or if there's a specific local issue you want to support. The Civicsteaks bot is trained for Philadelphia, so it can help you come up with ideas.

Weirdness Dial.

Choose a level on our Weirdness Dial to determine how creative and fun you want your event to be. Choose between Safe & Tame up to Delightfully Un-Hinged!

Five Civic Ideas.

Receive five increasingly bold event ideas customized to your club, local issue, and weirdness level. Pick your favorite and Civicsteaks Bot will write a full plan to help you host the event!

Civicsteaks Bot

Ready to cook

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Welcome to Civicsteaks! 🔥

Where we help Philly clubs do something civic and actually have fun doing it.

Tell me about your group — what do you all get together to do?

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Why Clubs?

If you run a crafting club, a running club, a chess club, a choir, or a cycling group, you probably didn't start it to get into civics. You started it to meet new people, to share your passions, to build something with others, maybe even to escape the turmoil of this unsettling time. Civics is for social studies textbooks and political parties right?

We want to work with clubs because we recognize that you've already done the hard part of showing up. You've built trust and created belonging around something that's meaningful to you. That's the foundation of civic life, not politics. And the secret is that just like your club, civics can even be fun!

Philadelphia has a long history of clubs and associations shaping the city. Change almost always starts with people who gather around shared interests and ask, "How can we make this better?" Civicsteaks simply helps clubs explore that question in a structured, creative, and grassroots way.

Civic life can be: Imaginative & Rewarding. Not heavy or partisan. We think clubs can help make that a reality and do it Philly's way.