The Cliff-Pit: Bridging the Post-Graduation Gap in Civic Engagement

Presentation Format

Interactive Workshop

Intended Audience

All Audiences

Program Abstract

While students have countless mechanisms for involvement on campus, even the most active leaders experience a period of isolation and disengagement after graduation. It's time we met this challenge with tools to prevent the drop-off and support recent graduates in building active and inclusive communities. Come learn about Break Away's efforts to engage alumni, and a model for understanding our role as citizens and organizers.

Presentation Description

At a time when collegiate volunteerism, service-learning, and social entrepreneurship is on the rise, it has never been more crucial for us to think critically about the short- and long-term effects of our programs - and how to ensure that these skills make the transition to students’ lives after graduation. This workshop will provide language and tools to support students’ work building inclusive communities beyond graduation.

Objectives

  • Participants understand the challenges of building community post-graduation

  • Participants learn community organizing models and language

  • Participants practice community organizing and community-building models with each other

Interactive Learning Techniques

Facilitated discussion ‘Think, Pair, Share’ response

Use of posters to present concepts

Individual reflection

Group brainstorming

CLIFF PIT

College students are some of the most engaged citizens in our nation. They pay attention to current events, vote, and know their neighbors. Then - they graduate. Whether or not a graduate changes cities, this structure of support is now gone, creating the “cliff pit.” Adults aged 22-28 are the least civically engaged group in the nation, and of the people who are most civically engaged in college, less than 50% remain civically engaged in their twenties. (National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement)

Abundant Community authors Peter Block and John McKnight take this a step further, exploring how damaging our society’s reliance on individualistic commerce is to community resilience. Our society is moving further from communities of proximity that support one another, and toward individualistic society - replacing talking to neighbors with Facebook, and asking for support from Google.

FOUR-LEGGED STOOL

Kettering Foundation (which researches democratic methods and participation) outlines how to meet individual and societal needs in their article, “The Four-Legged Stool.” As a society, we’ve added and expanded each of the three known ‘legs’ of the stool (below) based on needs or desires not yet met:

  • Government

  • For-profit institutions

  • Non-profit institutions

ASSOCIATIONS

There’s actually a fourth leg, meant to address needs at the local level that are not met by government, businesses, or nonprofits. Associations are groups of people that gather based on a shared interest, without pay. Ie - a professional sports team is not an association, but a neighborhood running club is an association. There are three types of participation:

Members: active and inactive

Connectors: natural asset mappers; see potential and affinity among all community members

Leaders: set the outcome and agenda; rely on active members for input

PICO Model of COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

The PICO model of community organizing demonstrates the importance of building a foundation of trusting relationships before taking action - assisted by forming and sustaining community associations.

Build Relationships

Identify Issues

Take Action

ABUNDANT COMMUNITY: Draws on members’ gifts and talents first to provide for community and personal needs; self-organized.

By organizing into associations, building relationships in your communities, and then identifying issues and taking action, you strengthen the fabric of that community. In fact, our task of building a bridge across the cliff-pit requires the same work as building abundant communities. This is how community needs will be met.

Location

Room - 218/220

Start Date

4-15-2016 9:45 AM

End Date

4-15-2016 11:00 AM

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Apr 15th, 9:45 AM Apr 15th, 11:00 AM

The Cliff-Pit: Bridging the Post-Graduation Gap in Civic Engagement

Room - 218/220

At a time when collegiate volunteerism, service-learning, and social entrepreneurship is on the rise, it has never been more crucial for us to think critically about the short- and long-term effects of our programs - and how to ensure that these skills make the transition to students’ lives after graduation. This workshop will provide language and tools to support students’ work building inclusive communities beyond graduation.

Objectives

  • Participants understand the challenges of building community post-graduation

  • Participants learn community organizing models and language

  • Participants practice community organizing and community-building models with each other

Interactive Learning Techniques

Facilitated discussion ‘Think, Pair, Share’ response

Use of posters to present concepts

Individual reflection

Group brainstorming

CLIFF PIT

College students are some of the most engaged citizens in our nation. They pay attention to current events, vote, and know their neighbors. Then - they graduate. Whether or not a graduate changes cities, this structure of support is now gone, creating the “cliff pit.” Adults aged 22-28 are the least civically engaged group in the nation, and of the people who are most civically engaged in college, less than 50% remain civically engaged in their twenties. (National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement)

Abundant Community authors Peter Block and John McKnight take this a step further, exploring how damaging our society’s reliance on individualistic commerce is to community resilience. Our society is moving further from communities of proximity that support one another, and toward individualistic society - replacing talking to neighbors with Facebook, and asking for support from Google.

FOUR-LEGGED STOOL

Kettering Foundation (which researches democratic methods and participation) outlines how to meet individual and societal needs in their article, “The Four-Legged Stool.” As a society, we’ve added and expanded each of the three known ‘legs’ of the stool (below) based on needs or desires not yet met:

  • Government

  • For-profit institutions

  • Non-profit institutions

ASSOCIATIONS

There’s actually a fourth leg, meant to address needs at the local level that are not met by government, businesses, or nonprofits. Associations are groups of people that gather based on a shared interest, without pay. Ie - a professional sports team is not an association, but a neighborhood running club is an association. There are three types of participation:

Members: active and inactive

Connectors: natural asset mappers; see potential and affinity among all community members

Leaders: set the outcome and agenda; rely on active members for input

PICO Model of COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

The PICO model of community organizing demonstrates the importance of building a foundation of trusting relationships before taking action - assisted by forming and sustaining community associations.

Build Relationships

Identify Issues

Take Action

ABUNDANT COMMUNITY: Draws on members’ gifts and talents first to provide for community and personal needs; self-organized.

By organizing into associations, building relationships in your communities, and then identifying issues and taking action, you strengthen the fabric of that community. In fact, our task of building a bridge across the cliff-pit requires the same work as building abundant communities. This is how community needs will be met.