How It All Began

In early 2015, A Functional Democracy cofounder Amy Stansbury was frustrated. She was working as a local news reporter in Austin, Texas and was tired of showing up to empty City Council meetings. She was witnessing firsthand what happens when people don't get involved in their local democracy - extremists win and everyone suffers.

And then an idea popped into her head - why not teach people how to get involved? 

That's when she started putting together online resources and hosting community happy hours - all with the goal of helping Austinites figure out who represents them at City Hall and how to advocate for the issues that really matter to them. 

But something was missing. Amy wanted a way to make civics more fun and accessible. And that's when she met A Functional Democracy cofounders, Hal Wuertz and Jordan Shade, two designers and artists passionate about civic duty.

While Amy was holding civics happy hours, Hal and Jordan were using art to make civics more accessible, and were creating participatory art projects about building community and increasing representation.

And bam! Just like that, a partnership was born.