The dramatic loss of trust and confidence in public and private institutions has recently led to a rapid growth in citizen-led renewal projects. The global trend has been accelerated by the arrival of crowd technologies, such as crowdmapping, crowdfunding, and crowdsourcing.

Citizen-led renewal bypasses risk-averse institutions, and does what they can’t do: it identifies needed projects, funds them, and launches them. Institutions can then support these projects when it’s “safe” for them to do so: when the project has sufficient public support and momentum.

No policy changes are needed to further this trend, but citizen-led renewal would greatly benefit if policy support were in place. If federal, state, and local government were encouraged by policy to support citizen-led renewal, it would greatly accelerate and empower this important trend.