National Civic Blog

The spring edition of the National Civic Review is out. It’s a special issue on "Diversity, Social Capital and Immigrant Integration." (Thanks again, by the way, to the Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Colorado Trust for their support.)

The issue has an introductory piece from Robert Putnam, author Bowling Alone and other influential books. Also, essays by Rinku Sen, co-author of The Accidental American; Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; and Eboo Patel and Becca Hartman of the Interfaith Youth Core. Former Littleton (CO) Mayor and Denver Post columnist Susan Thornton has a report on her city’s immigrant immigration project; Fairouz Abu-Ghazaleh writes about OneMorgan County, a refugee and immigrant program on the eastern plains of Colorado and Terry Amsler and Greg Keidan adapted their Institute for Local Government report on "Engaging California’s Newcomers."

You can regularly get the National Civic Review by becoming an NCL member. Link here. Or order a subscription or individual issue by visiting Jossey-Bass’s web site.

Transparency and open government

By Gloria Rubio-Cortes

 

The National Civic League was one of 12 organizations recently invited to a listening meeting with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Director Beth Noveck to provide resources and ideas for the directive to follow the President’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.   

   

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government," says President Obama’s Memorandum For the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies.

   

We know you have expertise and a passion for open, transparent, and participatory government, so we are you to give us your ideas on directive language.

 

E-mail your ideas to me at gloria@ncl.org or write them in the comments section of this blog.

 

Below are some ideas NCL has already submitted to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  We want to thank NCL’s Board and others who provided these great ideas, in particular the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and ZeroDivide. 

  

• Support efforts that attend to systems, structures, institutions, and policies, not only to people
• Support policies that are both “targeted” and “universal” to ensure they reach and benefit marginalized populations.  
• Support place-based, region- and system-wide work.  
• Support efforts that illuminate our “linked fates” across lines of race, gender, class, and social status.  
• Support high tech, low tech, and in-person (or offline) methods to involve the public with particular attention to engaging underserved populations (rural, urban, people of color, people with disabilities, etc) with appropriate methods and strategies (such as ethnic media, for example).  
• Adopt a strong racial equity framework and support work animated by an explicit racial analysis.  
• Support approaches that are sensitive to the needs and contexts of particular marginalized groups.  
• Support research and practical efforts to generate communications strategies and components that build support for racial equity.
• Support efforts that leverage the expertise of organizations (nonprofits and others) to engage the public in an open, transparent and effective way.

 

MetLife Foundation Ambassadors In Education

This being awards season for the National Civic League, we just announced the 2009 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors In Education. These are teachers who have excelled in building community partnerships.

There are some great stories this year. Read the press release by clicking here. Summaries of what they did are at the bottom of the page.

I'll have more info on some of these outstanding educators in subsequent posts, but I'll just say now: I don't know how they find the time and energy to do what they do in and outside their classrooms.