Case Foundation Study Offers "A New Approach to Civic Engagement"

[from the America's Promise Bulletin]

Getting citizens more involved in the civic life and health of their communities must begin with citizens themselves, according to a new study by The Case Foundation.

Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement offers specific recommendations for giving citizens the tools they need to identify problems and develop solutions, and warns against top-down solutions that require people to "plug into" existing programs or campaigns.

Authored by Dr. Cynthia Gibson, Citizens at the Center is based on interviews with scores of leaders in the service/civic engagement, political and marketing fields; the findings of scholarly research; and numerous mainstream articles, Web sites and publications. The report suggests that, while volunteering and voting are on the rise, especially among young people, many Americans feel powerless to do anything about the problems that affect them and that there is little connection between them and their public institutions and leaders.

Citizens at the Center also finds that many Americans have turned away from politics and political institutions for the same reasons they have turned away from other civic institutions. There is a sense that what they do matters little when it comes to the civic life and health of their communities or the country. Shifting to an approach that puts citizens at the center is a powerful way to help ordinary people take action on the problems that are most important to them, and in the ways they choose.

The report offers several steps the service and civic engagement field can take to advance "citizen-centered" approaches:

• Shift the focus. Instead of asking how to encourage civic engagement, consider the best ways to give people opportunities to define and solve problems themselves.
  
• Start young. Don't wait until high school to begin developing the basic skills that young people will need to be effective problem-solvers.
  
• Involve all community institutions. Engage faith-based organizations, schools, businesses, and government in providing public deliberation and problem-solving for all citizens.
  
• Use technology to create a new kind of "public commons." Leverage technology's power to encourage, facilitate, and increase citizen-centered dialogue, deliberation, organizing and action around a wide variety of issues.
  
• Explore and create new mechanisms. Don't assume that traditional venues like town hall meetings are sufficient to truly get different types of people to engage and share perspectives. Look at where people are already interacting (such as neighborhood organizations, schools and workplaces) and consider other approaches, structures and venues.
  
• Conduct rigorous research about what works and why. While considerable research has been conducted on the levels of volunteering, voting, community service and political participation, there is a need for more evaluation about the motivating forces behind such behaviors – and what approaches are effectively solving community problems.
  
• Encourage more funding for these approaches. Many funders may be reluctant to support long-term, local efforts, preferring to support bigger initiatives with a more immediate "payoff." Attracting more funding will require demonstrating the concrete results of local deliberation and action.
  
• Help communities move from deliberation to action. Deliberation should serve as a means to the end of communities being able to take action collectively in ways that reap results they can see and experience.
  

You can read more about new approaches to citizenship by visiting The Case Foundation's Spotlight page. Once there, you can download a pre-press-copy of Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement and listen to audio clips from some of the interviews that informed the report.

Rewarding Service-Learning

In a New York Times article, New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg's administration plans to offer tax credits to impoverished families to offset child care costs and cash rewards to encourage poor people to stay in school and receive preventive medical care. Achieving high scores on standardized tests or enrolling in a service-learning program were listed as actions that might be rewarded.

Read the entire article.

If successful in New York, could this be a possibility in other states?

- Susan, National Service-Learning Partnership

Five Years after 9/11: Turning Tragedy into Good

The following letter is from the Corporation of National and Community Service's CEO David Eisner

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Dear Colleagues,

Five years ago today, as the smoke was still pouring out of Manhattan, the Pentagon, and the crash site in Pennsylvania, President Bush said, "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

Indeed, the heartfelt outpouring of compassion and concern that marked Americans’ response to 9/11 also seemed to strengthen something in our collective resolve to make our communities better, closer, and more resilient.

Since 9/11, the number of Americans who serve and volunteer in their communities has risen by more than 10 percent for the first time in more than a generation. Millions of Americans are answering the Call to Service that President Bush made in 2002, and USA Freedom Corps, the Corporation, and our vast network of service partners continue to work at building a lasting culture of service, responsibility, and citizenship.

The 9/11 attacks have changed the landscape of national service, ushering in new organizations, vital collaborations, and better ways of doing business. Every state has created a Citizen Corps Council to engage volunteers in homeland security, many led by our state service commissions. New partnerships have been formed with FEMA, VOADs, and State Emergency Management Agencies. More of our grants have gone to support disaster preparedness and recovery. The Corporation has been formally designated in the National Response Plan as a lead agency for volunteer and donation management in times of disaster, as have several service commissions in their respective states. And thousands of our volunteers, members, and alums have taken CERT and other disaster preparedness training to be ready in case tragedy strikes again.

Beyond these changes, 9/11 and the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 have helped build Americans’ understanding that service and volunteering aren’t just “nice” but are necessary parts of how our nation deals with its challenges. Not just the occasional challenges of a man-made or natural disaster, but the ongoing social and economic needs that are disasters in their own right: the 15 percent of American children who live below the poverty line; the 15 million children who need mentors, the millions of elderly people who need help living independently in their homes. Our bipartisan elected leaders, from the President and Congress to Governors and local officials, recognize more than ever before that national service and volunteering are cost-effective investments that improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster active citizenship.

Out of the evil of 9/11 has come an unmistakable good: a rise of volunteering and community involvement. National service should be proud of its role in fueling and supporting this civic awakening. But we have a long road ahead to tap the full potential of American compassion. We are grateful to the national service family – state commissions and offices, programs directors and staff, and most of all members and volunteers – for choosing this difficult but noble path. And we thank you for the uplifting service you give to your fellow Americans today and every day.


In Service,
David Eisner
CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service

Serve to Remember & Remember to Serve

[From the Corporation of National and Community Service and National Service-Learning Clearinghouse websites]

Hurricane Katrina revealed nature at its worst, destroying everything in its path along 90 miles of America's historic Gulf Coast. The breaching of the levees in New Orleans simultaneously created a national tragedy of epic proportions. And Hurricanes Rita and Wilma stretched the limits of America's already overtaxed ability to respond effectively—and also tested the emotional and spiritual fortitude of the survivors.

But like the horrors of September 11, 2001, the hurricanes of 2005 showed America at its best. Even before the storm made landfall, Americans opened their hearts - and their wallets - to help their fellow Americans in need. America's armies of compassion - individuals, church groups, schools, and nonprofit groups large and small - sprang to action, raising funds, conducting clothing and food drives, and organizing a myriad of other efforts to help.

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's making landfall, the Corporation for National and Community Service - the federal agency that administers national service programs - has released several reports, fact sheets, videos, and other materials that document the contributions that national service participants and other volunteers have made to the recovery effort.

• Serve to Remember, Remember to Serve
• Serve to Remember project samples (Media Advisory)
• Hurricane Katrina Volunteer Support Fund
• Loss, Lessons & Hope for the Future "Voices from New Orleans
• A new report, National Service Responds: The Power of Help and Hope (3 MB PDF), documents national service’s role and impact in the Gulf to date, from support of first responders, to providing hands-on help to survivors and evacuees, to building capacity to enable more volunteers to serve in the region.
• A new fact sheet, Volunteers Respond (78 KB PDF), highlights the activities and accomplishments of more than 40 volunteer-driven national and Gulf-based organizations, who together have tapped the skills and talents of more than 550,000 volunteers from across the United States and around the world.
  
• New "Hope and Help in the Gulf" videos and PSAs show the power of national service in responding to the hurricanes and ask viewers to serve in the Gulf as volunteers and AmeriCorps members.
  
• A new fact sheet (48 KB PDF) compiles research that has been conducted on the effect of disasters on civic behaviors.
• Service-Learning Resources
• Hurricane Katrina Relief Service-Learning Resources and Tools
• Universities Rebuilding America Partnership (URAP):
  A Toolkit for Organizing Group Service Trips to the Gulf Coast to Help Communities Recover From the Hurricanes of 2005
• Use Service-Learning to Help in Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts [National Service-Learning Partnership]
  

Answer the call and let us know what you plan to do via the comments.

- Susan, National Service-Learning Partnership