America has a serious problem — a lack of trust in our elected leaders.
According to the Pew Research Center, less than half of the people in this country feel the current political system is effective at upholding their rights. Only 17 percent of Americans across party lines said they trust their government to do what’s right — compared to 75 percent in 1958.
These numbers are nearing a historic low.
In response to this crisis of faith, New Profit, a national venture philanthropy organization that funds social entrepreneurs, recently launched Civic Lab. Civic Lab’s goal is to promote nonpartisan democracy entrepreneurship by supporting a cohort of leaders who are working on solutions to build civic trust in America. The cohort currently consists of seven social impact entrepreneurs. Each leader received a $50,000 unrestricted grant, coaching and peer support in order to support their work.
“There’s declined trust in those kinds of institutions that actually used to be places where people formed communities and helped create the social connection and social fabric,” said Yordanos Eyoel, a partner at New Profit who leads Civic Lab.
Eyoel spent two years researching the civic needs of today’s society — a society that’s more divisive and more distrustful than ever before. “Civic Lab was really born with the emphasis of building and helping to support innovative grassroots solutions that are focused on building civic trust and civic culture in our country,” she told NationSwell.
Eyoel’s interest in civic engagement originates from her experience as a refugee. She was born in Ethiopia during the country’s longest civil war. She came to America in her early teens to join her mother, who had fled Ethiopia as a political refugee.
“Having grown up in a repressive government, I was obviously interested in civil society and activism,” Eyoel said. She started working at New Profit in 2013. A few years later, she had to decide between keeping her Ethiopian citizenship or becoming an American citizen. In 2016, the current state of political affairs in the U.S. motivated her to become an American citizen.
“It was a really big personal decision for me to forego my Ethiopian citizenship, but I made the decision to not sit on the electoral sidelines and to become a [U.S.] citizen and vote.”
Eyoel also helped co-found the Sister March Network, which helped mobilize the four million people who participated in the inaugural Women’s March in 2017. At the end of the march, Eyoel wanted to maintain the level of activism and engagement she saw with supporters of the march.
After two years of interviewing entrepreneurs and researching social distrust, Eyoel led the launch of Civic Lab, which brings together organizations that are addressing civic trust in multidimensional ways from multigenerational perspectives.
The pilot cohort launched this past March and features leaders from a range of sectors. But all leaders have a focus on democracy entrepreneurship.
One cohort member, Katie Fahey, is a 26-year-old activist who tackled gerrymandering in Michigan. With the help of Civic Lab, she’s taking on the rest of the country through her organization The People. Another cohort member, Rev. Gregory Holston, founded the interfaith organization POWER, which aims to unite faith-based communities on fighting for justice reform.
“We have shared values and shared cause but our tactics and strategies in the different spaces can help to inform what works,” said cohort member Steven Olikara, who is the founder and CEO of Millennial Action Project (MAP), the largest nonpartisan organization for young lawmakers.
Olikara is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is currently the most racially and politically segregated city in the country, according to the Brookings Institute. MAP’s goal is to empower, develop and amplify millennial lawmakers across the country and across party lines.
Olikara launched the nonprofit in 2013, and with the support of Civic Lab, aims to scale the organization beyond the dozens of legislators MAP currently supports.
With the help of a coach, who has experience in the private, political and nonprofit sectors, Olikara is gaining valuable new expertise.
Olikara said it’s key that the social venture philanthropy sector focuses on democracy entrepreneurship.
“Nothing scales a solution like public policy, and nothing solves the root cause like political reform.”
Olikara stressed it’s a critical moment when an anchor in social venture philanthropy, such as New Profit, identifies democracy entrepreneurship as a top priority.
“If you’re working on education, the environment, or immigration issues and not looking at the underlying reason of why our political system has not produced better outcomes in those areas,” he said, “then you’re missing the boat.”
More: Can A Nonreligious Church Save Politics?
Tag: Civic Solutions
What Would a City with No Plastic Bags Look Like?
On January 1, big stores in Los Angeles will no longer offer shoppers plastic bags at all, making it the biggest U.S. city to ban plastic bags. The law will help reduce pollution and encourage the use of reusable totes. And to help Angelinos get used to the idea, city officials have cooked up a plan to give out free reuseable bags. What I love about this LA Times story is how the city “teamed up with environmental and charity groups that work with veterans and former gang members to produce a line of bags made from recycled or repurposed materials.” This kind of city-civic partnership is a great example of bringing every one who cares about an issue to the table and coming up with solutions that offer something to everyone.
Google Creates a Better Way to Help You Find Your Local Lawmakers
Google just rolled out a few upgrades to its Civic Information API that “lets developers connect constituents to their federal, state, county and municipal elected officials—right down to the city council district.” In a blog post, Google stated that its API has already allowed developers to create apps for U.S. elections, but few offer ways to find lawmakers at the local level. You can already see the features of the new API in action via partner websites such as Change.org and Popvox. As with any open data project, the process is ongoing and open for testing and feedback. If you’d like to help test or weigh on on the new features, visit Google’s Developer Forum.
Source: Google Developers
San Francisco to Let Residents Vote Online on How the City Spends Money
San Francisco is rolling out a new “participatory budgeting” initiative that would allow residents to choose how the city spends its tax dollars. The online voting process would be the first major U.S. city to use citizen crowdsourcing to make and improve policy decisions. According to a recent article in TechCrunch, “[The city’s plan] is for each city district to vote on $100,000 in expenditures. Citizens will get to choose how the money is spent from a list of options, similar to the way they already vote from a list of ballot propositions. Topical experts will help San Francisco residents deliberate online.” This is a great example of how the United States is starting to use online tools to engage people in a way that impacts their lives. If the model can work in San Francisco, the rest of the country could be well on its way to a truly democratic government.
[Image: Steve Jennings/Getty Images For Techfellows]
Detroit’s Small Business Owners Won’t Back Down
Detroit’s lousy, very bad year includes declaring bankruptcy. But while some people see the end for the Motor City, some business entrepreneurs see opportunity and potential. Take a look at these young entrepreneurs, artists and innovators who are making a stand for economic and social revival by putting their small businesses on the line. What they’re doing takes not only guts, but vision to see possibilities where everyone else just sees failure.
Chicago Joins OpenGov Movement
Chicago is the latest in a growing list of cities to open up its city code to the public by making it available online and in an open source format. Chicago City Code is the latest site to launch as part of the OpenGov Foundation’s State Decoded project. OpenGov says its Decoded project “is part of a broader initiative to bring the law – the most important information in any community – to the people in more accessible, modern formats that can be used and reused,” according to its website. You can find more information about which states currently offer the code and participate. If you’d like to bring the State Decoded project to your city or state, send an e-mail to: [email protected].
Kentucky’s Says It’s Time to Fill the State With Quitters
With the Great American Smokeout on the way, and recognizing that 22% of its state population still smokes, Kentucky has started state-wide community challenge to get people to stop smoking. American Lung Association in Kentucky and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield have partnered to bring the “Quitter in You” program to the state. Since about 60% of quitters aren’t successful in their first try, this community effort doesn’t just provide support for people who are quitting. It adds a clever second layer, a robust toolkit for people who want to help a family member, friend, or co-worker quit. It even has specific resources for helping kids. Louisville, hub for the Kentucky program, has seen a slight decrease in its local smoking rates, but the city and still wants to curb tobacco use, which is tied to four leading causes of death: cancer, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke.