What I Learned from Running a Civic Engagement Bootcamp

PLUS congrats and prizes for Bootcamp participants!

What a week! The results of NYC’s primary election are still rocking the whole country. Congratulations to everyone who won, everyone who ran, everyone who volunteered, and everyone who voted. No matter how your favorite candidates did, your effort makes a difference. Advocating for your values isn’t just about one candidate, it’s about building power to move solutions forward.

For example, across New York, voters sent a powerful message about housing: they want more homes, lower housing costs, and leaders who are ready to act.

Full thread here

But that wasn’t always the case. Shifting the narrative on housing has been a years-long effort by Open New York and advocates across the city (and there’s still work to do, especially in Lower Manhattan). Whether your favorite candidate won or lost, your advocacy elevates your values, shows they have a real constituency, and shapes the narrative about what matters.

With the completion of the Primary Bootcamp, I’m feeling grateful, inspired, and proud. Thank you to everyone who poured their energy and time into this experiment in local civic engagement. I’m especially moved by those of you who tried something new for the very first time- texting a friend about who you’re voting for, tagging your Council Member, starting a conversation in your building. That’s what the Primary Bootcamp was all about.

Most of the actions we practiced during the Primary Bootcamp aren’t just for election season. You can always sign up for your community board’s newsletter. You can always start a WhatsApp group for your building or neighborhood. You can always tag your City Council Member on social media. And you should. Voting is the floor, not the ceiling, of civic engagement. The more we learn and build relationships when it’s not election season, the more we can shape the outcomes when it is.

We still have a long road ahead to the November general election. As Eric Adams said, “The election didn’t stop on June 24, it started on June 24.” Back at the Bootcamp Launch Party in April, I asked attendees to commit to one Bootcamp Action they’d try that week. I also asked: Who will you do it with—or tell about it? and What support would make it easier? One step at a time builds your influence. Take it at your own pace. Keep going. See all the “Next Steps” responses from April here for inspiration.

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Some reflections from running the 2025 NYC Primary Bootcamp:

Highlights

1. Bootcamp participants brought so much creativity, joy, and thoughtfulness to their actions. I loved seeing people adapt the Bootcamp to their own style, neighborhood, and community. Bootcampers came up with fun ways to learn and build together. It’s a good reminder that there’s no one way to build community. Just a couple examples:

• James and his neighbors went to a community board meeting - for many, their first time going - and then he hosted a pizza night after to debrief and keep the conversation going.

• Tal started a Substack called NYCuriosity with deep dives on local issues, explainers on city agencies, and coverage of his community board meetings, making hyperlocal issues and politics more accessible.

• Natalie posted voting resources on social media next to pictures of her very cute baby. Since everyone wants to see baby pictures, that’s a great hook for sharing information!

• Lynn gathered her Long Island City pickleball group for a picnic in the park. Due to Lynn’s efforts, “We were all strangers a year ago, now we're friends.”

Truly the best part was hearing from folks that they were taking actions that they hadn't done before. That was my goal. Notes like this:

"These action steps are so helpful!! Just started the challenge and it's helping me feel more invigorated for the upcoming election and making it easier to discuss with friends and neighbors about local issues. Thank you!"

2. Running the Bootcamp pushed me out of my comfort zone in multiple ways. For one, I collaborated on my first Substack Live, which was a big step for me. I’m used to public speaking, where you practice what you’re going to say ahead of time. I’m used to writing, where you can edit before you hit “publish”. But having a live, recorded conversation that now lives on the internet forever… That was a new kind of vulnerability. I was nervous that I’d say something I’d regret later. Or that I’d say something imperfectly and the audience would misunderstand and take it the wrong way. My brain kept spinning unproductively on different scenarios, so I started practicing responding to ChatGPT-generated interview questions. That was useful because it made me feel less nervous, even though I didn’t end up using most of the answers I practiced. And now that I’ve done one Substack Live, I’d be excited to do more!

I also had to ask for help throughout the Bootcamp. I don’t like asking for help. But when I asked for help, I got way better ideas than what I would have come up with on my own. For example, my friend Victor helped me shape the structure of the Bootcamp as a list of Actions, including ones related to building community. Jess honed the structure and correctly named it a Bootcamp, since she had recently participated in another bootcamp that really worked for her. Dean came up with the Where’s Waldo concept for the painting, and Eden helped connect me to the artist. As much as I find it difficult to ask for help, the Bootcamp would have been way worse without the advice I got from friends along the way.

Lowlights

1. I spent too much time on things that didn’t matter, and not enough time on things that could have been more impactful. I spent weeks fixated on finding an affordable and festive venue for the celebration party, and then another stretch focused on securing a local artist for the prints and prizes. These turned out not to matter much to compel people to complete actions. I should’ve focused more of my time and energy on what mattered most: supporting people in taking action. I could have supported more people 1:1. I could have hosted more get-togethers to build community. I could have gotten more donations for Bootcamp giveaways to help participants complete actions.

2. Venues in NYC be expensive. One place actually quoted me $125K🤯. I thought it’d be fun to host the Bootcamp Celebration Party at one of the POPS (privately owned public spaces) I profiled in my public bathroom adventures. Turns out if you want to rent a POPS, they require a 24-hour minimum rental.

3. I set an ambitious goal at the beginning, and searched for other measures of success throughout. I had initially defined success for the Bootcamp being: 100 people doing one more action than what they would usually do. Then halfway through the Bootcamp, I started getting disappointed in how it was going. I was behind on my goal. Because I was bummed that it wasn’t going well, I felt less motivated to work on it. I felt stressed because I was behind, but it took me a while to figure out that all I needed to do was to break down the bigger problem into bite size pieces that I could act on. So I stepped back and documented what was going well and what was not going well, in hopes that zooming out would give me direction for what to do next. I wanted to use multiple types of data to reflect on my impact so far: quotes, numbers, images, links. So I made a padlet that was just for me to track internal impact metrics, and it ended up not only making me feel better about what I had accomplished so far, it also gave me a push to do more in-person events since that was spurring more Actions. The padlet took 15 minutes to put together initially, and then I continued to add to it for the rest of the Bootcamp.

Only 64 Bootcampers ended up logging points, so that’s below my goal of 100 people. But over 150 signed up for the Bootcamp and there were ~180 people who attended in-person events. And I’ve heard from others that the Bootcamp made them think about civic actions in a new way, even if they didn’t log any during the Bootcamp. Here’s where we landed:

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Congrats to Bootcamp participants, and especially the top five!

Congratulations to Lenny, Eden, Natalie, Peggy, and Felix, the top five point-getters in the Bootcamp! As an acknowledgement of your incredible energy, leadership, and commitment to building a stronger civic culture in NYC, we're going to high tea at Gracie Mansion. I can’t wait to celebrate with you over vegan bites (I suppose an Eric Adams touch?) and Gracie Mansion’s proprietary brand of tea 🫖

Congratulations to everyone who got 70 points! That’s not an easy feat. If voting is the floor of civic engagement, you’re setting the ceiling! It takes time and effort to stay up to date on local issues, to be there for your neighbors, and to engage with agencies and elected officials. It takes effort to build influence to make our city a better place. I can’t wait to celebrate with you at the Bootcamp Awards Party and give you your art print on July 12 (see below).

The art piece commemorates an action-packed and landmark election. I teamed up with an amazing Brooklyn artist to create a one-of-a-kind art piece for Bootcamp finishers: Where’s Waldo… but instead of Waldo, you’re searching for the 2025 mayoral candidates in New York City. It features a packed, playful NYC scene filled with our iconic parks, streets, and buildings. You’ll be scanning for Zohran and Cuomo among joggers, pigeons, and other familiar faces from NYC politics and culture.

You should have gotten an invitation to the party via email. If not, let me know. I'll give you your print at the party. If you can’t make it to the party though, just send me your address and I’ll mail it to you: sachi.in.nyc@gmail.com.

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