Why Grow An Engaged Citizen?

It is clear the community benefits from engaged citizens, but research is just as clear that engaged citizens are significantly more likely to feel part of a community, feel secure in that community and have a healthy sense of self-worth.

Children start learning from the day they are born. And the lessons and values we learn in childhood remain with us for the rest of our lives. The great ancient civilizations - Greece and Rome - established systems of education to prepare their children, not for jobs, but for citizenship.

We ask a great deal of public education today. The world has become a very complex place. Citizenship is still in the curriculum, but it's a tight squeeze.

Civics: too cool and important (just) for school!

Research shows family political discussions have positive civic outcomes for youth. Young people who discuss current events more frequently with their parents report higher levels of national news monitoring, political knowledge, public communication skills and community service. The result is a child who is better equipped to make his or her way in the world.

What is engaged citizenship?

The nature of engagement and participation can be as varied as people are.

We want our kids to grow up to be healthy, happy, confident and independent adults; citizens who can find their way.

A wholly engaged citizen is a person who is aware and active in his or her life. Engagement comes in many forms, and often happens on three levels - personally responsible, participatory, and justice-oriented. All three can lead to positive change. For example, the personally responsible citizen might drop off food at a food bank. The participatory citizen might help organize a food drive, and the justice-oriented citizen might do some research, think about why people are hungry and act on what they discover to encourage structural changes to the system.

It is a simple thing to be engaged and we all are on some level. We teach our children right from wrong, to be personally responsible, to make responsible decisions about their behavior toward themselves and their personal actions toward others. We teach them to help others, such as stepping in to stop a bully.

This site helps you teach them to feel connected to the world and the value of becoming involved and active in supporting positive change. It offers you information on how to integrate teaching of civic and world engagement that recent research says is critical to building skills that enable children and young adults to be fully engaged.