What is Civic Leadership?
When you volunteer your time, skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm to promote the quality of life in your community, when you find ways to positively impact individuals, organizations and issues and contribute to the common good of a community, that is civic engagement, and when you are civically engaged, you are a LEADER!
Civic Engagement is "working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make a difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes."
Thomas Ehrlich, (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)
There are many types of Civic Engagement
Community Service & Volunteerism- addressing the immediate needs of our social and ecological communities
Community Building- building trusting relationships among individuals and groups around issues of common concern
Public Education- drawing attention to, and creating awareness of local, national & global issues
Community Development- identifying or increasing the human or economic assets of a community
Voting & Political Participation- mobilizing influence on public policy through formal political channels
Public Scholarship (Community Engaged Scholarship)- engaging in research that serves the public interest and has community or social benefits
Social Entrepreneurship- using entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to make social change