A university that's doing it

I know this is an Illinois-centric blog, but sometimes I come across a site I just have to share. It seems that Northern Kentucky University has come a long way in integrating civic engagement into its curriculum and its mission. Located in Highland Heights, KY, across the river and seven miles south of Cincinnati, the Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement works with students, faculty and local organizations to build the capacity of the community, foster citizenship skills in students, and cultivate commitment to civic renewal. See http://civicengagement.nku.edu/

Recognizing volunteers

I was pleased to attend an awards breakfast this morning at Lincoln Land Community College, where more than a dozen community volunteers were recognized for providing great service. None of these people do their volunteering for the recognition, but it was nice nonetheless to see, collectively, how much energy volunteers bring to a community. The Community Volunteer Center, a joint center of Lincoln Land and the University of Illinois at Springfield, sponsored the breakfast.

Volunteer opportunities in Illinois: Lots of info!

Illinois has 14 official volunteer centers that compile information for volunteers and for organizations that need volunteers. This is a great partnership. The list of these 14 centers, along with other information about volunteer oppportunities in Illinois, are available at http://www.illinois.gov/volunteer/opportunities.cfm.

Illinois resources for volunteer leaders

The state of Illinois helps keep track of resources for Illinois volunteer leaders. It has a web site that provides information on state, national, and international organizations committed to community services. Go to http://www.illinois.gov/volunteer/resources.cfm. The contact listings for the programs were prepared by the Metro Chicago Volunteer Coalition, in collaboration with the Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service and the Association for Volunteer Administrators of Metro Chicago. The listings are updated by the Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.

Volunteerism in Illinois

The Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, part of the Illinois Department of Human Services, strives to improve communities in Illinois by supporting and enhancing volunteerism and community service. The commission has created a Unified State Plan (USP) to guide its activities and program priorities . The goals of the USP are to make communities stronger through volunteer programs; improve community-based organizations ability to maximize their volunteer resources; and increase the number of individuals volunteering and involved in their communities. For more information about this statewide effort, go to http://www.illinois.gov/volunteer/commission.cfm.

New Standards of Excellence from United

United Way of America has updated its Standards of Excellence and hopes that these standards help local United Ways serve their communities better and consider five areas of operation: community engagement and vision; impact strategies, resources and results; relationship building and brand management; organizational leadership and governance; and operations. See this PDF document.

Bethel New Life has different approach

Bethel New Life is a place-based (West Garfield Park), faith-based community development corporation. Since 1979, it have developed initiatives that deal with the causes of problems in ways that build on the strengths of the people and community. This approach is known as asset-based community development and runs counter to the more common "needs-based" model of community development. Bethel has almost 1,300 volunteers, employs 348 people and has many local and national partners. See http://www.bethelnewlife.org/index.htm.

Why NIPC looks to the year 2040

The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission has established a "Common Ground Project," a pioneering regional planning process that is bringing the six-county Chicago region together to create a shared vision for its common future. This is an unprecedented opportunity for the whole region to work together in full public view. More information and an invitation to join Common Ground are at http://www.nipc.org/cg/.

Professor Dawson returns to U of C

The University of Chicago has announced that Michael Dawson will return as a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College this summer. He is one of the nation's leading experts on the racial divide in the United States and has been at Harvard since 2002. Between 2000 and 2004 Dawson and Lawrence Bobo conducted six public opinion studies on the racial divide in the United States, creating the richest data on this issue that exists. They are a currently working on a book that analyzes this data. See http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/05/050405.dawson.shtml.

"One region. One future." 2 organizations

Two respected Chicago organizations that promote a regional approach to change, encourage communities to collaborate rather than dig in on local interests only, and that work actively to change public policy are the Metropolitan Planning Council (http://www.metroplanning.org/ and Chicago Metropolis 2020 (http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/. Metropolis 2020 has come up with a slogan, "One region. One future." Nice. Both organizations have conducted a lot of valuable research about the Chicago region and freely share it on their web sites.

Community Renewal Society promotes reform

The Community Renewal Society has been around since 1882 as a faith-based social justice organization. It serves in many ways as a conscience for what's happening in Chicago, and it has two respected publications, the Chicago Reporter (http://www.chicagoreporter.com/) and the Chicago Catalyst (http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/); the latter deals with school reform. The society's web site is at http://www.crs-ucc.org/.

College students unite for action

I felt a lot of energy in the room yesterday when dozens of college students from throughout the state met for a lobbying and political action workshop sponsored by the Illinois College Compact and the University of Illinois at Springfield. Today these students will go to the State Capitol to lobby their various representatives. What a great thing -- to have college students talking about the value of their participation in politics and other civic engagement activities. I hope the students follow up by contributing to this blog and that Illinoisans find this blog so they discover more about what is happening!

My handout at UIS conference April 10, 2005

I was pleased to be on a forum about civic engagement at the Day at the Statehouse conference this afternoon at the University of Illinois at Springfield. I am looking forward to seeing college students from throughout the state and to talk about what we learned in our Illinois Civic Engagement Project. You can access my handout at http://www.edwoj.com/Links/Wojcicki_DASH_handout_041005.mht.

It is one page -- very handy. It has suggestions on how to get more people involved, and it lists the major barriers to engagement.

Who represents you in Springfield?

It's easy to find out who represents you in Springfield. All you have to do is type in your address on a web site of the Illinois State Board of Elections. Find out who your senator and representative is by going to http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/DLSAddresscrit.asp.

To get more useful information from the State Board of Elections, such as how to vote or who contributed money to candidates in Illinois, go to http://www.elections.state.il.us/.

"Donors Forum" has wealth of info

One of the more interesting groups that provides information and opportunities for networking is the Donors Forum of Chicago. Its name describes what it is. Donating money is a civic engagement activity in the United States, and the nonprofit sector is vital to our communities and our economy. The Donors Forum Library houses the Midwest's largest collection on philanthropy. See http://www.donorsforum.org/.