CIRCLE Online Seminar - Resources

The aim of the Easy Voter Guide project is to make nonpartisan information about why vote, how to vote and what's on the ballot accessible to as many Californians as possible. Founded in 1994, the Easy Voter Guide project is a collaboration of the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund, the California State Library and the Common Knowledge Group.

In addition to voting, there are other ways that parents and families can get involved in advocating on behalf of children and young people

BYOP began more than ten years ago and was originally known as the Roxbury Church Collaborative. At a time when youth violence was claiming many victims in Boston neighborhoods, a group of pastors wanted to create a space for youth to take positive ownership of their communities. Liz Steinhauser, the group's first organizer, brought together many neighborhood church youth groups to work toward this purpose. The new community won their first victory by re-opening the Melnea Cass Skating Rink! Energized by this victory, the Roxbury Church Collaborative began the move toward more broad issues and successfully extended the time for the Student T-Pass from 6pm to 8pm (in 2009, BYOP succeeded again in a win for our Youth Way on the MBTA campaign, further extending the Student Pass from 8pm to 11pm.)

Critical thinking about news media. The American Library Association (ALA) unveils a new campaign to engage librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students across the country in a news literacy education project. The campaign, "News Know-how," is supported by the Open Society Foundations. The two-year project seeks to create partnerships and collaborations for a nonpartisan, critical analysis of news and information. In addition high school students, with public libraries as their "newsroom," will learn how to distinguish facts from opinions; how to check the source and validity of news and information and how to identify propaganda and misinformation.

One message sent to 60 million Facebook users on Election Day 2010 got at least 300,000 additional people to vote, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature magazine.

National History Day makes history come alive for students by engaging them in the discovery of the historical, cultural and social experiences of the past. Through hands-on experiences and presentations, today's kids are better able to inform the present and shape the future. NHD inspires children through exciting competitions and transforms teaching through project-based curriculum and instruction.

CIRCLE paper regarding using news media in schools and involving family

The Poitou-Charentes Region is located in the West of France. It has a population of 1.600.000 inhabitants, which makes it one of the most rural regions in France. In 2005, the executive of the Region Poitou-Charentes implemented the first participatory budgeting at a regional level in Europe.

There is energy and family engagement happening locally and nationally around public schools, education and equity issues - Citizens for Public Schools

Nonprofits as partners in voter registration and mobilization

Here is a CIRCLE Working Paper on the relationship between school and family influence on youth civic engagement.

Nonprofits taking about the common good.f you can talk and listen to another person, you're well qualified to lead this workshop. That's what common good conversations are all about. Since the common good is about creating a world that is beneficial for all living things, we all need to be part of the conversation. "Does Measure X on our state's ballot contribute to the common good?" "How can we advocate for the people our nonprofit serves?" The workshop will help you discuss these questions (and others) in a way that fosters collaboration (not competition, arguments, or discord). Check out the PowerPoints and Trainer Guide for more on leading collaborative conversatio

Database of participatory democractic innovations - This site belongs to you: the global community of democracy researchers, practitioners and interested citizens. Participedia's strategy is simple: crowd-source data on democratic innovations from around the world from contributors like yourself and then aggregate this into an open, public database that continually updates with new contributions. We hope that you will be part of this endeavor, through either contributing content or sharing your analysis of the data found on this site. Please visit our help page to learn how you can contribute to - and benefit from - Participedia's growing collection of resources.

Voting engagement toolkit for Yogi and Yoga Studios

To encourage students to become active voters once they are old enough to cast a ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are inviting high school and middle school students, teachers and principals to participate in the MyVote California Student Mock Election, which takes place on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, just one week before California's November 4 General Election.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives.

The Family Dinner Project is a start-up grassroots movement of food, fun and conversation about things that matter. Over the past 15 years, research has shown what parents have known for a long time: Sharing a fun family meal is good for the spirit, brain and health of all family members. Recent studies link regular family meals with the kinds of behaviors that parents want for their children: higher grade-point averages, resilience and self-esteem. Additionally, family meals are linked to lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, eating disorders and depression. We also believe in the power of family dinners to nourish ethical thinking. Now, through this movement, families will come together to share their experiences and insights to help each other realize the benefits of family dinners. Together, they'll figure out the resources needed - like tips for setting dinnertime goals, overcoming obstacles such as conflicting schedules and engaging everyone in meaningful conversation - to improve the frequency and quality of their mealtime interaction.

The Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is a citywide effort to realize the vision of racial equity. The Initiative works within City government and with community leaders to get to the root cause of racial inequity: institutional racism. RSJI is led by the Seattle Office of Civil Rights and an interdepartmental team of City staff. All elected officials in the City of Seattle have endorsed and are promoting RSJI.

March 3 Future of California Elections Conference in LA.