Civic Saturday
A meeting to energize and prepare for the political year to come.
In the Doylestown library on 150 S Pine St. Doylestown, PA at 11 a.m. November 5, 2022
Activities
Opportunities to Practice Active Democracy/Community
There are many opportunities to be involved in democracy by giving money or getting people to the polls during elections. But there are few ways to work together with others on the practice of democracy in community throughout the year. Involvement during election is brief but intense, while donating money is impersonal, indirect and even less involving than election support. Below are some ideas for those who are interested in being more personally, actively and continuously involved in democracy and its use in community with others.
Story Writing, Finding and Reading
Writing, finding and reading stories to children about freedom, democracy and community is a way to involve children in thinking about democracy and community. For example, Horton Hears a Who! by Doctor Seuss, shows children what the power in community can accomplish when community members work together
Learning Experiences
We are making learning experiences that we can share with others in personal gatherings or small groups and possibly, in large video watching groups. These experiences let people think about freedom, democracy and community and give them ways to participate in a community’s use of democracy.
School curriculum
There are numerous school curricula that teach civics and civic engagement. We, however, are building and collecting learning experiences that support the active involvement of K-12 students’ in understanding, building and using our freedom, belief in the power of democracy and understanding of the expansion and use of democratic power in community.
Citizens’ Campaign
A group that helps people develop skills to work within local governments https://thecitizenscampaign.org/
Service Projects
We are developing experiences in which people of all ages get practical involvement and participation in using democracy in community with others while learning valuable democratic skills.
Issue Oriented Collaborative Networks (IOCN)
The IOCN is a collection of groups, associations, clubs, organizations and other collections of people dedicated to a particular wide-ranging issue (such as environmental quality, infrastructure, or technology). In order to support each member actively pursuing their mission and goals, IOCN lets members locate other member groups willing to collaborate in mission related campaigns. For example, an Environmental Safety Group is involved in an environmental quality improvement campaign. Through the IOCN, the Environmental Safety Group would request campaign assistance from all the members interested in environmental quality to participate in their campaign. Groups are free to participate or not depending on their own mission and goals and membership availability.
Discovery sessions
This activity is about building guides to the news, Web, books, articles, archives, research and other information sources that let people follow some aspect of freedom, democracy and/or community across our countries political/social/cultural/economic/educational/historical landscape.
Social capital building
Part of the power in democracy is not in politics but in the power that people have in working with each other to solve problems, follow interests, develop issues and generate learning. Social capital is developed by making different kinds of connections with one another and understanding how to use these connections. This is an important part of making democracy work with political issues as well.
If you are interested in any of the above activities and would like to contribute some time and energy (not money) to one or more of them OR you have some ideas about active ways to be involved and participate with others in our democracy that you would like to share, send a message to us at democracybuildingproject@gmail.com and indicate how you would like to be involved or what you would like to share.