Photo: Graffiti from the Brooklyn Bridge proclaiming, "Love is the answer!"
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Civic engagement is more than voting in elections. It is being an involved member of your community and recognizing your power to affect change.
Community engagement, service, and capacity building have been integral to my identity as an adult educator. I began my journey in adult education when I committed to a year of AmeriCorps service in 2011. I sought to improve the conditions of the "at-risk" population with whom I worked. However, over the course of my experiences, I recognized my bias and tendency to emphasize deficiency over strength and resiliency.
Since then, I have been committed to reframing civic engagement and community service to be less of a hierarchical top-down exchange between the haves and have-nots and more of a reciprocal community building effort between all partners.
Since then, I have been committed to reframing civic engagement and community service to be less of a hierarchical top-down exchange between the haves and have-nots and more of a reciprocal community building effort between all partners.
Resources & Research in this Section
Instructional Design for Educators: Forging Meaningful Community Partnerships
This instructional designed is geared toward providing service-learning educators with the tools to develop meaningful partnerships with community organizations. It is also intended to inform educators about the significant investment of time and effort involved in establishing partnerships that have a lasting impact.
Civic Engagement Toolkit
This toolkit covers three teaching strategies that can lead to critically engaged civic learning: Discussion, Dialogical Thinking, and Service-Learning.
Sample Civic Engagement Program Plans
This webpage page includes links to two documents outlining civic learning programs: A Family Activism Workshop, and the 2014 NYC Youth Service Summit.