In his fiscal year 2014 budget request, President Obama included proposals for funding a number of grant programs supporting high-quality early learning. We need older Americans to voice their support for these important requests. Here's why.
It begs the question: What is causing young people to be more pessimistic about the power of their vote? And not only that, but why are the politically engaged even more pessimistic?
Here are five ways that local governments looking to take advantage of Open311 can strike a balance between innovation and pragmatism.
Service-learning is successful if civic engagement becomes a way of life for our college students, both before and after graduation.
Rising civic participation among young voters should be greeted with the same bipartisan joy with which the 26th Amendment passed. But instead, it's been met with the opposite: a barrage of state-level laws meant to make it harder for young people to vote.
Student voice has been largely absent from the debates of the last year centering on teacher contracts and school closings.
People in Denver are deeply worried about the future of journalism. This week, a couple thousand media thinkers and optimistic reformers are gathering...
I'm convinced that the outpouring of political activity on social networks -- especially around hot-button social issues like marriage equality -- is a frustrated attempt to engage by a generation of people unsure of how else to make change.
Given his service as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry is presumably familiar with the challenges and opportunities of public diplomacy. The question is, what priority will he assign to it, in terms of his personal emphasis and the department's allocation of resources?
A recent report on the state of Millennials' civic participation indicates that the generation's interest in taking part in political activities is constrained by the underlying skepticism of many Millennials about the transparency and fairness of the country's current political system.
Civic engagement takes many forms, and it's important to assess which strategies are best for your cause. Here are a few steps to get started on the path to being an engaged citizen.
The international aid community responds to familiar challenges, as they have for the past 20 years, with the same programs combining trainings and grants. One reason these programs have not yielded the intended results is that they have overlooked the importance of education.
Before I sound preachy, allow me just to say this: your power is your ability to act. You can decide to engage, mobilize, and commit to making Detroit's public square more accountable. And, in 2013, Detroit needs your civic action more than ever.
I was well into my 40's before I started to realize this. I am amazed that these young people are so grounded and insightful at such a young age. Their words are inspiring to me.
The Dream Freedom Revival's performance is one example of what Imagining America is all about: catalyzing and organizing a revival in American higher education that emboldens scholars and students to join with others in their communities to do the public work of democracy.
I've traded in the Dyke March for Dyke Sitting on the Couch. Have I allowed myself to lose my edge, or did it happen naturally? Have the shifting political tides and subsequent progress in favor of equality quieted activist voices, or has activism itself shifted to a different, digital presence?
As the city shapes its future post-Sandy, can it also become a role model for how a community of leaders and citizens can work together to solve complex and potentially volatile public problems?
Why do so many communities fail to grow in good economic times and remain durable in downturns? What are the gaps between our immediate surroundings and our ability to significantly affect them for the better?
Many people view the New Year as a time for resolutions -- losing weight, exercising more, staying in better touch with friends, taking up a new hobby. Here's something you don't often hear of when considering New Year's resolutions -- devoting more time to civic life.
Out of, it seems, nowhere, we are having right now a new national discussion about guns, mental health, and violence because through a terrible act Adam Lanza brought his denial of reality back into our reality with a vengeance.
Humans -- you and I and the rest of the world's seven billion people -- possess the means to reign in the degradation of the environment. Nature cannot defend itself against the damage that society creates. It is up to us to chart a wiser path.
We are on the doorstep of a new era in politics -- one where young people matter. This week six U.S. Senators from both sides of the aisle introduced Senate Resolution 608 supporting the establishment of a Presidential Youth Council.
By: Robyn Gee In the 2012 presidential election, young people with college experience were much more likely to vote, than young people without colleg...
Lost in the election's afterglow for Democrats and deep funk of Republicans is the hard work to be done and how the president's success -- which, by definition, is the country's success -- depends on how many of us will have the president's back for the next four years.
Effective citizens are sophisticated consumers of information. They ask hard questions about the issues facing their community, state, and nation. All of these behaviors are learned, not innate.
