In an effort to expand civic engagement, PolicyOptions piloted a program in its New Jersey home to have students at local colleges and universities reporting on issues within their respective communities.
So far, PolicyOptions has established bureaus at The College of New Jersey and Rutgers campuses in Camden, New Brunswick and Newark. PolicyOptions Coordinators based at each of these sites are training students to report digests on such topics as funding, legislation, regulations, publications, meetings, executive actions and court rulings. These digests will be linked to the issue briefs PolicyOptions produces in its wiki.
The organization hopes these localized contributions will expand PolicyOptions’ already established reserve of national and local analyses of policy acts.
PolicyOptions has been enjoying steady growth. Since September 2009, the organization has added more than 150 issue briefs with contributions by 600 students around the country.
