Special Initiatives

Special Initiatives are projects the Community Learning Partnership (CLP) undertakes as a network or with national partners that contribute to strengthening pathways into community change careers for low-income, historically marginalized groups, and individuals who wish to become engaged in movement-building in their local communities. These special initiatives contribute to the larger field of community organizing, movement building, and civic engagement.

Special-Initiatives

CLP’s Grassroots
Civics Initiative

The CLP Network has learned about what it takes to move students who have been historically marginalized from a state of disengagement and alienation, to believing that their voices matter and becoming skilled and engaged participants in civic life. With support from the Teagle Foundation, we are gathering our network’s effective practices and lessons learned to develop resources other colleges can use to reimagine their commitment to developing the civic capacity of their students.

Virtual Grassroots
Civics Institute

Join practitioners from the Community Learning Partnership (CLP) for our first Grassroots Civics Institute!

The CLP Network has many years of experience developing educational and career pathway programs that center the voices and agency of historically marginalized students and support them in cultivating the knowledge, tools, and community organizing skills to make a difference in their communities.

Three Institute Tracks:

Track #1 – U.S. Government for All

Track #2 – Pedagogy for strengthening Civic Capacity Across Disciplines

Track #3 – Institutional Transformation for Civic Capacity: Best Practices for Institutional Change

Dates/Times: All sessions will be held on Fridays from May 12, 2023 through July 07, 2023 at 12PM – 3PM Eastern.

Cost: This institute is offered free of charge, however space is limited and registration is required to attend. Honoraria are available for select participants who complete all sessions in a track and report on the implementation of a new approach or practice.

Registration: You can register for one or more full tracks, or one or more individual sessions. The application for our first Grassroots Civics Institute Opens April 01, 2023 and closes on May 10, 2023.

Virtual-Grassroots-Civics-Institute-Panel-Image

 

About the Grassroots Civics Institute Tracks and Sessions:

 
This Nine-Week Virtual Learning Experience consists of:
 

Opening and Closing Sessions: The Institute’s opening session on May 12, 2023 will provide an introduction to CLP’s values, approach, network, and Grassroots Civics Initiative; as well as time for participants to share and get to know each other. The Institute’s closing session on July 07, 2023 will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on and share what they learned.

Track #1 – U.S. Government for All – Intended Audience: This track will be organized as a “community of practice” where faculty who teach about US government and politics can contribute to the building of US Government for All, a new course designed to engage students who have not seen themselves represented or felt included in historical narratives or current national conversations and to foster their engagement in our civic life.

    • Session 1 – May 19th: Sharing of US Government for All framework, lessons and assignments; and sharing of ideas about what participants are interested in developing to enhance their own curricula and to contribute to this new course.
    • Session 2: The second session will consist of one-on-one check-ins about plans to enhance curricula.
    • Session 3 – (Thursday) June 29th: Participants will share what they have developed so far and what they will incorporate into a course during the Fall Semester.
      *This track will have an additional session in December 2023 and a larger honorarium for sharing final lessons and how they were incorporated into a course.
     

Track #2 – Pedagogy for Strengthening Civic Capacity Across Disciplines – Intended Audience: Faculty who teach in a variety of disciplines and want to use pedagogies that cultivate voice and agency and show students how to make a difference as civic participants.

  • Session 1 – May 26: Pedagogical practices that contribute to Agency (Developing self in community with others)
  • Session 2 – June 9: Pedagogical practices that contribute to Vision (Envisioning how another world is possible)
  • Session 3 – June 23: Pedagogical practices that contribute to Action (Taking action with others)
 

Track #3 – Institutional Transformation for Civic Capacity: Best Practices for Institutional Change – Intended Audience: Faculty, administrators and community partners transform their institutions to be places where this work can take place in fruitful ways.

  • Session 1 – June 2: Power Mapping Your Institution
  • Session 2 – June 16: Student Power – Learn & Earn and Student Voice
  • Session 3 – June 30: Community Accountability – Partnerships and Adaptive Pedagogy


Registration Deadline:

The application for our first Grassroots Civics Institute opens April 01, 2023 and closes on May 01, 2023.

 

Contact Information:

If you have any questions and would like to discuss before registering, please contact:

Hilary Binder-Aviles | Hilary@communitylearningpartnership.org


Register for our Grassroot Civics Institute!


The Grassroots Civics Institute is made possible thanks to support from the Teagle Foundation.


Tools and Resources for Re-imagining

Introduction to U.S. Government Courses at Community Colleges

Pedagogy for Strengthening Civic Capacity Across Disciplines

Institutional Commitment to Foster Students’ Civic Capacity

See Us in Action!