Together we will examine and help to strengthen the foundations of civic health.
At CivIC, we will use our voice and our resources to advance civic education, civic engagement and needed democratic reforms in the state of Maryland and in the nation’s capital. Together, students, scholars, and practitioners across institutional, geographic and ideological divides will have an opportunity to help build a new civic square.
DRIVING BETTER CIVIC HEALTH AND STRONGER FUTURE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THROUGH IMPACTFUL RESEARCH
K-12 Civic Education
CivIC is a keystone partner in a new coalition of Maryland civic education and service learning stakeholders working to modernize and realize the full potential of Maryland’s singular service learning graduation requirement. We are working with other partners from academia, civic education, and grassroots voting and civic engagement nonprofits to discern challenges facing educators seeking to provide meaningful civic learning and doing, in particular in an environment of disrupted learning and a renewed focus on systemic inequities.
The Prince George’s County/Maryland We Want
Understanding and remedying civic health challenges is a principal part of CivIC’s mission, and service to our community and state are core to the University of Maryland’s mission as a land-grant university. CivIC will partner with other campus units and higher education institutions such as Bowie State to undertake a comprehensive examination of civic health challenges in Prince George’s County, most recently manifest in a 2020 Census undercount and in disparities of impact of COVID 19 relative to other Maryland counties. Our learning instruments will include public opinion surveys, town-hall consultation groups, and using publicly available data such as the Census’ Current Population Survey. We will identify civic issues of importance to the community and prepare an annual/semi-annual report tracking these issues. Once we develop and sustain this local civic health platform, we will propose a similar assessment and report on civic health in the state of Maryland.
American democracy stands at a difficult crossroads as it grapples with a deeply polarized political climate, lack of trust, and historical, systemic challenges to full participation in our democratic processes. Higher education has been affected along with many other sectors, but universities are also driving solutions across disciplines from public health to public policy. Many BIG10 universities are not only important individual contributors to these efforts, they also share the responsibility to promote the public good within their respective states
Learn More about Big10 Collaboration: Democracy in 21st Century
The Vote 16 Research Network is a community-led collaboration between the university, community leaders, young voters, and philanthropy that will pursue new knowledge about lowering the voting age together. The network will work to produce ongoing knowledge about lowering the voting age and establish a connection between scholars and communities that can expand beyond this particular policy in important and impactful ways.
Learn More about Vote 16 Research Network