CIRCLE Online Seminar - Resources

nteresting piece by Tim Smith, Director of Online Engagement @ ServiceNation "Do young people see government as a solution anymore?"

Tim Bonnemann's website.We are a digital engagement startup based in San José, Calif. (USA). We help organizations in the public, private and non-profit sector apply technology to drive collaborative governance, public participation and other types of participatory processes.

National Issues Forums (NIF) is a network of civic, educational, and other organizations, and individuals, whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. It has grown to include thousands of civic clubs, religious organizations, libraries, schools, and many other groups that meet to discuss critical public issues. Forum participants range from teenagers to retirees, prison inmates to community leaders, and literacy students to university students.

March 3 Future of California Elections Conference in LA.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Voting engagement toolkit for Yogi and Yoga Studios

Take a look at Youth Speak Collective, which targets "natural" leaders, rather than student body officers. Youth Speak Collective is a youth-driven organization founded on the idea that all young people can succeed if provided with the right opportunities. We follow a "for youth, by youth" philosophy in which young people are empowered to help design and implement our programs.

iCivics is a non-profit organization dedicated to reinvigorating civic learning through interactive and engaging learning resources. Our educational resources empower teachers and prepare the next generation of students to become knowledgeable and engaged citizens

Scholars in the deliberative democracy space. This is a link to their book "Why Democracy?" The most widely debated conception of democracy in recent years is deliberative democracy--the idea that citizens or their representatives owe each other mutually acceptable reasons for the laws they enact. Two prominent voices in the ongoing discussion are Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. In Why Deliberative Democracy?, they move the debate forward beyond their influential book, Democracy and Disagreement.

A scholar in the deliberative democracy and face-to-face democracy space. Her current work includes studies of representation, democratic deliberation, everyday activism, and the public understanding of collective action problems.

IN THE COLLEGE, CAREER, AND CIVIC LIFE (C3) FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIAL STUDIES STATE STANDARDS, THE CALL FOR STUDENTS TO BECOME MORE PREPARED FOR THE CHALLENGES OF COLLEGE AND CAREER IS UNITED WITH A THIRD CRITICAL ELEMENT: PREPARATION FOR CIVIC LIFE. ADVOCATES OF CITIzENSHIP EDUCATION CROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, BUT THEY ARE BOUND By A COMMON BELIEF THAT OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC WILL NOT SUSTAIN UNLESS STUDENTS ARE AWARE OF THEIR CHANGING CULTURAL AND PHySICAL ENVIRONMENTS; KNOW THE PAST; READ, WRITE, AND THINK DEEPLy; AND ACT IN WAyS THAT PROMOTE THE COMMON GOOD.

The Harry Potter Alliance is a coalition of fandom leaders and members who feel passionate about the power of story to inspire and affect social change. Just as Harry and his friends fought the Dark Arts in JK Rowling's fictional universe, we strive to destroy real-world horcruxes like inequality, illiteracy, and human rights violations. - See more at: http://thehpalliance.org/what-we-do/#sthash.K6WpIWGO.dpuf

The mission of IndyKids is to engage young people to become informed world citizens through the production of a current events and social justice news source that is created by kids, for kids.

A commitment to engaging young people in civic life and public decision-making in Hampton, Virginia has inspired a model for youth civic engagement. The article presents two ingredients for successfully engaging youth: creation of a system of multiple engagement opportunities, and systematic efforts to address adult attitudes that fail to recognize young people as resources to their communities. The author analyzes the lessons learned from working within a system of youth civic engagement, and presents preliminary findings of the benefits of engaging young people in the civic life of a city.

"Guardian of Democracy: the Civic Mission of Schools" report provides a comprehensive look at the role civic learning plays in maintaining our democracy, examines the major problems confronting civic learning, shows six proven practices in effective civic learning and provides recommendations for policymakers, educators and all citizens.

Gay-Straight Alliance Network is a national youth leadership organization that connects school-based Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) to each other and community resources through peer support, leadership development, and training.