A Historic Week for Akron's First Civic Assembly

It’s rare to see so many of Akron’s leaders, organizations, and residents packed into the same room. Even though we’d been organizing this event for months, I admit I wasn’t prepared for how I felt when I looked around the room. I found myself momentarily speechless when I realized that the folks there, some of whom are regularly at odds with each other, showed up because of a goal they all share. 

After months of building a coalition of more than 150 community leaders (everyone from the mayor, judges, and police force leaders to CEOs of the zoo and the art museum), we officially convened our partners, volunteers, and local contractors in the run-up to Unify Akron’s first Civic Assembly, scheduled for mid-March. 

We’d begun by interviewing residents citywide and surfaced four major issues people most wanted to improve. When we brought those to the City’s elected leaders, they all pointed to the same challenge: housing. Specifically: how to increase access to affordable, safe, well-maintained homes for Akron families.

Then, in mid-November, came the week of meetings that felt almost historic.

The room where we held the big kick-off was packed with more than 110 Akron residents, all contractors and volunteers for the upcoming Civic Assembly, with a welcome from the Mayor and the President of City Council. As you can imagine, the Akronites filling this room do not always see eye to eye—but that night, they were shoulder-to-shoulder. As one elected official noted, there aren’t many efforts like this “where if it succeeds, everybody wins.” 

Leaders and residents from neighborhoods across the city filled the room, signing on not for a single event, but for a durable partnership for transformational change.

A smaller gathering earlier that day had brought together the Accountability Team, highly respected voices from very different corners of the community. Several said they’d served on committees before that produced reports that were still collecting dust. But they joined the Unify Akron effort because they saw something different: a process designed from day one to ensure follow-through, with government leaders asking for recommendations and citizens organized to help enact them…with people from every neighborhood and every walk of life in Akron participating.

At the third meeting, we convened the 20-person volunteer Housing Solutions Team, another group of people who aren’t typically sharing a table. A major developer sat across from the local head of Habitat for Humanity; a pastor (who was also a landlord) sat across from the City’s Director of Planning. Their job: ensure the delegates in the Assembly get the clearest, broadest education on Akron’s housing reality and the most credible range of possible solutions to deliberate.

Yes, it may be national news when Unify Akron demonstrates how a community can productively address its housing crisis.

But this isn’t just about solving housing. It’s about proving that a city can replace political fighting with collaborative problem-solving—something repeatable, scalable.

Momentum is already spreading: we’re in conversation with several other Ohio communities, with Chicago targeted for late 2027.

Akron is becoming the model for how cities can bring people together across differences to tackle big challenges with creativity, respect, and a shared goal. 

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