Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook

Introduction

What we mean by civic participation
One of the primary purposes, historically, of adult education has been to prepare people for participation in a democracy. This might include English and civics lessons for newcomers who wanted citizenship, or literacy for emancipated slaves who faced literacy requirements quickly erected to keep them from voting. In these situations, the vote has represented a powerful symbol of liberation and inclusion.

We believe, however, that to really have a voice in the decisions that affect our lives, we need to go beyond voting to more direct forms of participation, such as community education, advocacy and organizing. We also need, in a culture that celebrates the individual and the myth of the equal playing field, to recognize our interdependence, and acknowledge and address our inequalities. Building community, in this way, is one aspect of civic participation.

This sourcebook aims to reflect these many dimensions of civic and community involvement. Its purpose is to present a range of tools that can help readers examine their own beliefs about community, citizenship, democracy, etc.; identify and analyze issues that concern them; and build skills and strategies to take informed action. We encourage readers to compare the goals and assumptions of the various models of civic participation, and to make choices about when, why and how they might use each of them.

Many adults are already active in their communities in a number of ways, and have honed many of the skills of participation. This resource helps them build on their knowledge in preparation for new experiences of activism. But we have also found that adults seldom describe themselves as active in their communities, which reminds us that we need to start by talking about what these terms mean to each of us.

When we surveyed workshop participants about what civic participation meant to them, their answers included:

Exercising a voice in how your community operates
Following what people do once they are elected
Awareness, being heard, action
Start by being a good neighbor; a sense of belonging is a start
Coming together on many levels to be engaged in public issues and community life
Being able to navigate and influence systems and policies
Learning about community history
Becoming an agent (rather than recipient) of change

Clearly, there are many takes on what civic participation means, and this sourcebook has been written to be inclusive of these differing points of view.

Past Lessons and Influences
The sourcebook builds on the work of many past efforts to prepare people to participate in the decisions of their communities. The most immediate influences are the writings of Frances Moore Lappé and Paul Martin DuBois (described below), and two projects that have explored the potential for integrating adult education with community involvement.

The Voter Education, Registration, and Action (VERA) Project
In 1998, the New England Literacy Resource Center convened four teams of practitioners in three states that met for on-going discussion and sharing about their efforts to incorporate community involvement projects into their teaching. The data from that classroom research taught us that what adult students need in order to become engaged in such projects is:

• A personal connection to a community or an issue;
• Role models that remind them that change is possible and help them recognize their ability to contribute to that change;
• Skills (research, critical reflection, advocacy, etc.) that prepare them to take informed action;
• A clear connection to their academic goals;
• A sense of community within the group; and
• Rehearsal of unfamiliar interactions (interviews, phone calls, meetings, etc.)

These findings have informed the overall contents of the book.

Equipped for the Future (EFF)
EFF is a national initiative to help adults meet four fundamental purposes for adult education (access to information, voice, independent action, and bridge to the future) and to build consensus around what adults need to know and be able to do as workers, family members, and community members. Diverse groups have come together to describe the activities that are key for each role. The community member role map (page 9) is a result of that consensus-building, and can be a starting point for discussion about the ways that people might want to be active in their communities. The full EFF framework includes tools that can help adults map out what they want to be able to do and the skills they need to get there. And it builds awareness of how their abilities transfer from role to role.

We have found the EFF tools useful for helping students see the direct relationship between real life activities and the development of academic skills. Without this connection, community concerns seem peripheral to what most adults see as the primary purposes of their education. EFF also names, through its “Common Activities,” the areas of activity that are essential in all three roles (“Work Together,” for example) so that students are able to see the transferability of what they are learning to other contexts. This is particularly important given the current educational emphasis on work (getting it, keeping it, etc.), and the need to demonstrate that what adults learn about participation in the community will be applicable to their work and other life goals. In the text, each section opens with a list of transferable activities and skills that are addressed in that chapter.

The Ten Arts of Democracy
In “The Quickening of America” by Frances Moore-Lappé and Paul Martin DuBois, the authors outline ten myths that undermine the notion that we have the power and ability to solve community problems. They also offer strategies for counteracting these myths. They call these “The Ten Arts of Democracy,” which deal largely with the ability to listen to one another and work across our differences. The “Ten Arts” have informed the development of this sourcebook by reminding us to address the many interpersonal elements that make collective action, education, advocacy, and self-discovery possible. We invite you, also, to consider what it might mean to think of these skills and abilities as “arts.”

What’s Here and Why
The intent of the sourcebook is to develop greater capacity for community participation and informed action. These are both grounded in critical inquiry about specific issues and their social and historical contexts, our own priorities, and our options for making change. The sourcebook supports this inquiry by providing two kinds of tools. One is a collection of narrative accounts (written mostly by teachers) of past community education and action projects – predecessors we can learn from. The other is an array of “prep and practice” activities that focus on skill- and confidence-building, particularly in the areas of reflection, analysis, research, and communication.

Very few of these pieces were written specifically for the sourcebook. Most were gathered from past issues of The Change Agent (a publication of the NELRC), or excerpted from other curricula and project documents. Because this is mostly a compilation of what already exists and what we know about, there are bound to be gaps and imbalances in what is represented. The pieces also vary in focus, level of detail, and intended audience. They need to be approached as models that can be adapted for particular teaching contexts. We hope you will see this variety as a strength, as it introduces you to a wide range of related resources that can be used to dig more deeply into each specialty area. It also introduces you to teachers and students whose experiences, we hope, guide and encourage you in your own work.

The text is organized into five sections. The first section addresses, head on, the challenge of integrating any kind of civic participation with the adult education curriculum. The remaining four sections focus on the more successful aspects of projects carried out in diverse settings. Along with acknowledging the barriers that make such projects difficult, we wanted to highlight the real possibilities that exist, and the strategies educators have used to bring civic participation into the adult education context.

Within the sections, each narrative is accompanied by prep and practice activities that build some of the essential skills and knowledge needed to take similar action. Some skills – listening, for example - are key to every story although the activities only appear in one place. In fact, most of these skills are transferable from one form of civic participation to another, and beyond. What brings these prep and practice activities to life are the stories of lived experience that we hope will motivate others to their own creative action. Enjoy and share the stories.

 

Table of Contents