Saturday, July 24, 2010

Civic engagement for the week of July 16-23, 2010:
Advocacy training:

"Citizens in Action: Tools for Gaining Input" 8-page brief from the National Association of Counties (NACo) is designed to provide county officials with a variety of options available in order to engage residents and garner meaningful citizen input. Blog

"In Search of Civility" 8-page issue brief from the National Association of Counties (NACo) provides an overview of current state of civil dialogue in local government and examples of how counties can ensure a civil dialogue during county meetings. Blog

What you need, where to go, what to do and how to make an impact for petitioning. Blog

For the conservative movement to succeed in the long term, newcomers and veterans need to understand [20] principles and that there is always something we can learn from someone else. Blog

You’re going to have to create [political passion] yourself, if that’s what it takes to get you and your neighbors to hit the streets, vote, and generally do stuff. Blog

Video of last week’s panel discussion for the book "Digital Activism Decoded." Blog

“Where is Democracy Headed?” (2008) is a report published by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium which summarizes more than four years of learnings about deliberation, decision-making, and problem-solving. Blog

"Digital Political Campaigning 101"- a terrifically detailed look at contemporary online campaigning. Blog

"How to Communicate Effectively with Congress," an advocacy classroom course for you to be an effective and active participant in your government. Blog

Regarding AmericaSpeaks' June 26 National Town Meeting on the nation's fiscal future, it would be safe to predict that fights would break out if you sat thousands of people together from across the political spectrum and asked them to talk about sensitive political questions. Instead, we saw that people had the courage to sit down with one another and really listen to each other. There was plenty of disagreement, but the disagreements tended to be civil and respectful. Blog