Community Engagement Learning Exchange

Census Hopes to Reverse Decades of Under-counting Youngest Children

This entry was contributed by Brian Bowman, on June 5th, 2019 at 9:00 am and is filed under Accessibility, Diversity, Outreach Methods, Social Justice.

The US Census is so important that the Constitution requires it. Since 1790, the nation has counted its people every 10 years. The data gathered touch all of us: they determine the number of representatives our state has in congress; they’re used in the creation of legislative and school districts; they even affect how states and communities distribute funding for things like neighborhood improvements, public health, and education.

But one group has consistently been overlooked for decades. The US Census Bureau says that young children – ages zero to four – are often missed. As many as one in every 10 young children was left out of the 2010 census, according to the non-profit Population Reference Bureau. PRB says these youngest people are more likely to be overlooked than any other age group. Continue Reading

The Effect of Income Inequality on Civic Engagement

This entry was contributed by Eric Van Holm, on May 29th, 2019 at 9:00 am and is filed under Community Partnerships, Diversity, Outreach Methods.

Rising income inequality is a growing concern in the United States, undermining economic mobility and civic trust. A majority of Americans believe income inequality is a significant problem that needs policy solutions, but what if the continued widening gap between the haves and the have nots restricts the ability of citizens to propose remedies? Income inequality at local levels may weaken citizens belief and engagement in political institutions and undermine one of the hallmarks of American democracy – citizen participation.

In a research article recently published in the American Review of Public Administration, I addressed those concerns using a survey of small and mid-sized American cities to see how changes in income inequality within those communities impacted whether citizens participate in decision making with several government departments (policy, city and parks, economic development, budgeting, and the mayor).

Break the Cycle: A Community Working Together to End Violence

This entry was contributed by Traci Ethridge, on May 23rd, 2019 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Outreach Methods.

In a fast-growing city like Charlotte (N.C.), many factors can contribute to rising crime rates. There is, however, a common driver that has been identified… individuals who know each other settling disputes with gunfire. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) has numerous crime reduction strategies in place including their launch of a Crisis Intervention Team and Community Policing Crisis Response Team but they also value partnerships across the community that join them in efforts to help keep the city safe. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations is a very strong partner in this work and offers comprehensive conflict resolution training to the community. Putting an emphasis on teaching people how to resolve conflict without violence could have a significant impact on issues Charlotte is experiencing. It is critical that conflict resolution be offered to both youth and adults which is why Community Relations has also partnered with schools to offer peer mediation programs. Continue Reading

Selling Civic Engagement: A unique role for the private sector?

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on May 16th, 2019 at 10:23 am and is filed under Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Outreach Methods.

I am glad to summarize and link to a story by Dr. Rebecca Winthrop. She is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution.

We see civic engagement as something up to citizens, civic groups, schools, advocacy organizations and others in the public sector. What about the private sector?

Winthrop asks, “While civil society and government have been the actors most commonly addressing the decline in faith and participation in our democracy, is there also a constructive role for the private sector to play?”

She notes that many companies connect to civic engagement through directing corporate social responsibility dollars to civically-minded activities and by supporting employee volunteerism.

Her main ideas for private sector support of civic engagement are: Continue Reading

Reflections on a four-year-old citizens academy program in Aspen, Colorado

This entry was contributed by Michelle Holder, on May 10th, 2019 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Outreach Methods.

I rolled into Aspen, Colorado in May 2015, my Civic coupe packed to the ceiling with my personal belongings. When I stepped outside to breathe in my new home, the mountain air felt cool and refreshing.

My goal was to start a citizens academy program for the City of Aspen. Five bulleted pages detailed my duties.

Among the goals and activities for the Academy were: “acquainting participants with the programs and problems of the community; stimulating their interest in community activities and encouraging their active participation; educate them about wide variety of community resources; help them connect with one another; and giving participants valuable personal leadership tools….”

Have you ever wondered why young people just don’t vote? Maybe it’s not them, it’s you.

This entry was contributed by Jake Gellar-Goad, on May 3rd, 2019 at 9:27 am and is filed under Elected Officials.

I’m glad to introduce Jake Gellar-Goad, who is a Program Specialist and a founding member of the Wake Forest University nonpartisan voter engagement committee Deacs Decide.

I was participating in a voting rights conference a number of years back where I heard from the Mayor of Takoma Park, Maryland about how their city experimented with letting young people under 18 cast votes in local elections. And guess what? It worked!

Now sure, some of it may have been the novelty of letting young people vote, but from what I heard, the young voters were participating at higher rates of voting than most other age groups of voters. And when you think about our current system—how we wait until people turn 18 and often leave the communities they’re connected with to start college or work—the Takoma Park experiment kind of makes sense. People vote when they feel connected to the communities they are voting in. And that tells me there are two important solutions to getting young people to vote.

Open Mic, Public Art, and Community Engagement

This entry was contributed by Joshua Rosenstein, on April 26th, 2019 at 11:02 am and is filed under Advisory Committees, Civic Education, Public Meetings.

I am Josh Rosenstein and I am a second year UNC-Chapel Hill MPA student getting ready to graduate from the School of Government. I usually blog over at MPA Matters, but it is a real pleasure to get to write a guest post over here about I topic I love and care about: community engagement.

I get to tell you about puppets, Frederick Douglass and community fun and learning.

Collaboration: What Makes it Work

This entry was contributed by Rick Morse, on April 10th, 2019 at 9:00 am and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Partnerships.

One of the better and more practical resources on community collaboration that I have utilized over the years is a little monograph published by the Wilder Foundation titled Collaboration: What Makes it Work (authors Paul W. Mattessich and Kirsten M. Johnson). I’ve long appreciated the practical advice, drawn from the research literature and from observed practice, and how well the authors conveyed that information concisely, in a 75 page handbook. So I was very pleased to see a new, third edition of the handbook was published last year, and I am happy to report that the new edition is even better. Here I highlight some of its key contributions, while offering my strong endorsement and recommendation for anyone doing boundary-crossing work to get your own copy of this resource.

Like the previous edition, the new third edition is focused on collaboration as “a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organization to achieve common goals.” The book is organized around 22 collaboration success factors, grouped within six categories of Continue Reading

From Sugar Between Neighbors to Community Building

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on April 3rd, 2019 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Outreach Methods, Uncategorized.

We don’t go next door to borrow a cup of sugar very often. Does this lead to community isolation?

Here’s a great illustrated story from YES magazine.

The story starts here….. Continue Reading

Why Support Quality Housing?

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on March 28th, 2019 at 9:41 am and is filed under Housing.

High medical costs, short-staffed businesses, low-performing schools, crime and vacant houses, homelessness, frustrations and injustices. An adequate supply of good places to live is not a magic wand but it would go a long way to improving health and stability. The persistent shortage of safe affordable housing consigns people to living in places that pose health risks and to moving frequently in desperate search for better options, resulting in deteriorating houses and transient neighborhoods. Living conditions spiral downward into a deep pit that is almost impossible to get out of. But imagine the difference when people don’t have to worry about leaking roofs and high rents and can focus on their health and families and jobs, on school work and active participation in their communities. Continue Reading