I’ve written pretty extensively here about the ways we’re engaged, what we’re engaged in, and how we engage throughout our lives. I define engagement as any sustainable connection in our lives, within or around us. Today I’m going to write about the roots of engagement, or why we become engaged. Talking recently with a colleague, sheContinue reading “Why Engage In Anything?”
Tag Archives: civic engagement
Democracy and Children: The Connection
Democratic participation relies on individuals taking collective ownership and deliberate roles in the societies where they live. From the earliest age children have the interest in their neighbors and communities to warrant actively engaging them in democracy; research, and international practice codified in the CRC, demonstrates that their evolving capacities necessitate opportunities for their activeContinue reading “Democracy and Children: The Connection”
100 Ways To Engage The World
An engaged world is one where everyone lives fully and wholly, everyday in every way. Since 2010, the bevy of consultants and trainers with CommonAction have been working across the U.S. and Canada to promote the concept of an engaged world. We define engagement as the sustained connections people have to the world within andContinue reading “100 Ways To Engage The World”
My Call to End the Voting Age
“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.” —Kofi Annan Everyone has the human right to democratic processes regardless of age. Voting isContinue reading “My Call to End the Voting Age”
Impact of The Freechild Project
The Freechild Project promotes new roles for young people throughout society. We do this through: Operating programs in a number of communities; Providing technical assistance; Facilitating training and speaking, and; Managing a massive online database. The impact of our overall work has never been formally assessed. However, here I’m going to compile some measures of impactContinue reading “Impact of The Freechild Project”
Terms of Engagement
Considering all the different ways people talk about engagement, a few years ago I laid down a series of essential definitions related to engagement. In this graphic taken from a presentation I did in North Carolina last year, I detail four of these “terms of engagement.” The definitions: Engagement. The sustained connection felt with aContinue reading “Terms of Engagement”
You Are HERE.
Learning about Heartspace and the Principle of Engagement challenges some people. After a lifetime of being told where, how, when, and why you need to be engaged at work, in the community, at your house, and everywhere outside yourself, it can be hard to hear that the greatest engagement of all is personal engagement. We reallyContinue reading “You Are HERE.”
Engage Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time
Photo by mikedugeniohansen on Flickr. All rights reserved. Since the turn of the millennium there have been an increasing number of individuals and organizations sounding the clarion call for engagement. Demanding that we emerge from our self-inflicted drunken-like apathetic slumber, we’re called to “get involved”, “do something”, and “make a difference” in all sorts of ways focusedContinue reading “Engage Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time”
The Engagement Movement
CommonAction facilitator Emma Margraf engaging youthin Pasco, Washington in fall 2011. Crises loom throughout our society, some real, some manufactured, all happening right now. At any given moment schools may be crumbling, health insurance for poor children may be disappearing, universities may be going poor, and parents may be abandoning their children. In addition, theContinue reading “The Engagement Movement”
The First Rule of Engagement
The first rule of engagement is to get honest with yourself. I wanted to change the world since I was a kid. Learning to focus closely, when I was very young my family was living in a motel in the Midwest. I was determined to help us by starting a business. One day I wasContinue reading “The First Rule of Engagement”
