The work of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship is grounded in the belief that a healthy democracy requires everyone’s participation, and that each of us has something to contribute.
Minnesota Works Together—changing culture from me to we
The center is organizing a network of people and organizations around issues that are important to them. This long-term effort is called Minnesota Works Together (MWT). MWT aims to build a movement for culture change that will strengthen Minnesota’s civic life in the face of corrosive cultural and social trends.
Minnesota Works Together Campaigns
- Warrior to Citizen – The first campaign of MWT brings together a diverse coalition of individuals, organizations, and communities to find ways to ease the transition of returning veterans from their role as soldier to their role as citizen. The campaign is a vehicle for greater civic engagement by veterans and non-veterans.
- A New Public Conversation on Health – The center is connecting individuals and organizations to reframe the public conversation on health, health care and community.
- Citizen Legislators – With coaching and mentoring by Center for Democracy and Citizenship organizers, a bipartisan coalition of state legislators is thinking about their role as elected officials in a new, more public and engaged way.
- November 5th Coalition – The center is a key member in this national alliance which aims to turn the 2008 U.S. presidential election into deliberation and debate about how we can mobilize the energies and talents of the whole society to address our common challenges.
Neighborhoods
- Civic Life in St. Paul –The center’s rich history of work nurturing a strong civic culture on the West Side of St. Paul is a foundation for revitalizing a sense of place in neighborhoods across the city, based on MWT’s assumption that a flourishing civic life requires a strong sense of place.Other cities and institutions use the center's work in neighborhoods as an example of how to create cultures of civic learning and organizing.
- Hope Community – The center’s Public Achievement model of student engagement is integrated with other organizing models at Hope Community, a well-established community-based organization that works with youth to create public power spaces in one of Minneapolis’ most diverse and economically challenged neighborhoods.
- Cedar Humphrey Action for Neighborhood Collaborative Engagement (CHANCE) – This student-led effort, born out of the center’s student engagement work, challenges the University of Minnesota to deepen its relationship with the surrounding neighborhood by creating connections and promoting partnerships between University students and staff, and local businesses and neighborhood residents.
Students
- Student Engagement – College students play a key role in MWT campaigns and neighborhood work. By teaching courses in public work skills and mentoring individual students, center staff aim to educate what author and educator Parker Palmer termed the “new professionals”— persons who are not only competent in their disciplines, but also have the skill and the will to confront, challenge, and help change the culture of the institutions in which they work.
|
