Our Model

The Burnham Center for Community Advancement is a think-and-do tank that helps make the San Diego binational region a better place to live, work and play for all. We serve as a nexus point where community stakeholders and multi-sector partners come together to identify regional needs, find innovative solutions and tackle some of our most pressing issues.

As a community, we have big aspirational ideas. We face exciting opportunities, and we wrestle with vexing, persistent challenges. Through collaboration, we can narrow our divisions, heal disaffection, accelerate progress and live into and up to our full potential as a region. BCCA will encourage and support our community leaders to come together and act upon our shared needs, values, and aspirations.

How We'll Do It

We believe that through community engagement, vigorous dialogue, research, data and best practices, we can build a platform for our community leaders, businesses, educators, workers, researchers, faith-based organizations, nonprofits, residents and government to move us forward.

We will look at community-initiated policy priorities, partner driven initiatives and BCCA initiated campaigns through this process. Our goal is to tap the power of community collaboration and civic innovation to foster a region that opens doors, provides opportunity, helps the people of our great region prosper and becomes a place we are all proud to call home.

Together, we will bring big ideas to life and strengthen our community fabric through:

Transformation: We’ll strive for new solutions that will move our region in a new direction by finding novel ideas to address our most persistent problems.

Ideas to Action: We’re not just dreamers. We’re doers. One of the most important dimensions to this model is that ideas will become action.

Future Focused: Tomorrow’s San Diego begins today.

Diversity: An array of people and ideas are essential to move the region forward.

Collaboration: We believe collaboration can narrow our divisions, heal disaffection, and accelerate progress. Engagement, partnership, and cooperation allow us to achieve things we often can’t do on our own.