A Front-Row Seat to Civic Engagement Today: Learnings from Civic Season’s Pilot Year
This summer, a new civic tradition was born. Civic Season ran from June 14-July 15, 2021 with the goal of creating a new type of civic tradition — one that mobilizes us all to connect with our past, take action in the present, and shape the future through activities and events in our neighborhoods, cities, towns, and social spaces.
Organized by Made By Us, Civics Unplugged, and over 100 partners including PACE Members National Archives Foundation and Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library, PACE took note of this pilot initiative earlier this year and helped to spotlight it within the field of civic philanthropy. After all, it seemed to be hitting on so many themes we focus on: elongating civic engagement, creating civic traditions, engaging youth in their communities, understanding the context of history in how we shape our future — to name a few.
It was exciting to see Civic Season gain in popularity and impact in its first year. Over 200 partners joined in, submitting resources and propelling a dynamic conversation online. They developed fun and out-of-the-box resources like their civic superpower quiz and Gen Z’s Civic Season Bucket List. Ultimately, from Juneteenth through July 4th, 2021, 10,000 people across the country discovered activities from learning to service, and thousands more attended local and virtual events from 200 organizations, chimed in on social media and connected with others.
We observed so much civic experimentation and innovation through this year’s Civic Season, and we were thrilled to see the team release their top ten takeaways from the pilot year. I was also eager to go deeper with the team and look more closely at what this all means for civic engagement today. Luckily, I got the opportunity to sit down with one of the creators and leaders of Civic Season, Caroline Klibanoff of Made By Us, to hear more about what is giving them hope, what they learned didn’t work in motivating young people to civic engagement, how we might elongate civic engagement out of a “before elections/after elections” construct, and what’s next for Civic Season moving forward.
Amy McIsaac, PACE: At Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, we think a lot about civic engagement. You just got a front row seat to civic engagement in America today, especially Gen Z’s civic engagement. What is your biggest takeaway?
Caroline Klibanoff, Made By Us: In running this first year as an exploratory pilot, with the ethos of Gen Z in mind, our goal was to learn as much as we could about the landscape, our own capacity and processes, and what would be a desirable, feasible, and scalable new take on old tradition — a revitalized July 4th — that galvanizes civic participation. Year one forms our baseline, and we learned quite a lot across the spectrum.
One of our biggest takeaways was that civic engagement means very different things to those in the field and those on the ground — but engaging with our holidays and traditions is a powerful on-ramp to engaging at all. Because these moments are so central to American life, and so familiar, they are excellent entry points for an accessible discussion about who we are and where we’re going as a nation. Just as changing monuments have captured our national interest over the last several years, holidays and rituals are a form of commemoration that reflect our times, and everyone can find their way “in.”
Going into the Civic Season, we knew many Gen Z-ers held a reluctance toward a wholesale, uncritical celebration of July 4th (and yet, didn’t want to give up personal and family traditions.) We knew there was renewed energy around Juneteenth and a desire to learn more Black history. But the proximity of these dates, at this moment in our history, really elevated the Civic Season to drive forward a nationwide conversation about freedom, justice and whose stories we tell. For those of us working in civic engagement, we can better leverage (and evolve) the symbols, rituals and traditions that are core to civic habits like voting.
AM: What gives you hope about the state of civic engagement today?
CK: It’s inspiring to see the sheer number of organizations who now see themselves in a civic role and are willing to take part in activities that the public is demanding from businesses and institutions alike. Just as we hope to engender a shift in individuals to see themselves as part of the larger picture, as civic actors who play a role in shaping the United States and the world, we are also seeing this happen with organizations who previously may have thought their work was “outside” of the civic sphere.
First, history museums and historic sites — our Made By Us coalition of partners in particular — are becoming civic hubs through efforts like Civic Season, but also Civic Holidays, voter registration drives, community gardens, rapid response collecting, vaccination, and of course their strongest suit, providing relevant historical context for our current challenges. But we’re also seeing this with corporations, with volunteer organizations, with veteran’s groups, campus organizations and municipal bodies like Madison, Wisconsin, who officially declared this period of time the Civic Season. Organizations are seeing the potential of stepping into the civic picture.
Institutions and industries, across so many sectors, affect our civic life and our shared story — so it’s about time that we encourage organizations to step into that role and support civic engagement for their employees, customers and constituents.
AM: Did anything not work in motivating young people towards civic engagement? If so, can you share what those things were and what you learned?
CK: It’s an interesting follow up to the previous question. While our post-Civic Season data collection and surveying gave us high marks on many aspects of the program, one of the clearest insights was that the program would benefit from an even sharper emphasis on serving our target audience, 18–30 year-olds. If we want to create a program that serves this audience, we simply must design for their needs — even over the needs of institutions (including institutional needs for comfort, self-protection or “how we’ve always done it.”) And if we do build something that resonates with those ages 18–30, then institutions will have more reason to join in.
That sounds obvious, but the rubber hits the road when you also want to create a “big tent” for civic engagement. We went broad and inclusive in year 1 — with 450 programs available on the Civic Season website, there was something for everyone, in a rich array of formats. That decision lowered the barriers for institutions to participate, but it created a potentially overwhelming set of offerings for users. In a world where endless information, videos, explainers and interactives are only ever a click away, we believe sharper criteria for relevant programs, curated paths through the offerings, and a way to navigate and track collective progress can all contribute to an improved Civic Season experience.
As we approach the 250th anniversary, and various entities come together to plan for that commemoration, it will be important to consider how institutions are meeting the bar for younger generations to participate. Gen Z is leading us in a direction of increased civic participation, using new formats, channels and content, which presents a great opportunity. And yet institutions only have so much capacity to adapt. We might find that we relieve ourselves of unnecessary burdens if we allow ourselves to move beyond traditional formats like panels, plenary sessions, and policy briefs — and collaboration lets us share the risk of such experimentation. Embracing a broad definition of what “civic engagement” is, inclusive of personal and community actions, is also a way to include more people, especially younger people.
AM: What “counts” as civic engagement can be tricky to navigate, especially when it comes to things beyond voting, registering to vote, and running for office. In your recap piece, you mention someone who engaged in Civic Season by calling their mother. Can you share more about how you thought about the components of an engagement that made it civic engagement? What would make something not civic engagement, in your view?
CK: Our focus at Made By Us is bringing historical context, from a plurality of perspectives, to bear on civic life today. We look to the past in order to navigate the present and the future. And when you widen the lens on United States history, you begin to see the variety of ways that people have shaped our nation, and how interconnected our stories are. We’re a nation “made by us” — far more than just voting, our story is a result of people volunteering, protesting, writing op-eds, joining the PTA, leading marches, establishing symbols and traditions, growing Victory gardens, starting local businesses, bringing court cases (think how often a Supreme Court decision has an individual’s name in it) and yes — calling their mom, if they usually celebrate the Fourth of July by connecting with family and friends.
We’ve embraced the view of civic engagement as something that happens at the personal, local and national level. The “personal” level dovetails with similar conversations happening among our target audience (ages 18–30) related to “doing the work” around mental health, self-care, being media literate, or understanding your family history. It’s critical to reflect on your values, your viewpoints and the factors that shaped you, as part of being an active citizen. In fact, that might be the very first step. And you can begin that work in a journal, in a Netflix documentary, or in a conversation with your mom.
Research from the Frameworks Institute shows that while people tend to think of “government” as a remote monolith, when we are activated in “villager mode” — thinking of the common good and our communities — we can be moved to take action. One way to activate that “villager” mindset is to remind people of the many actions they already take every day that are “civic engagement.” In other words — you’ve already started, so what’s next?
AM: At PACE, we’ve talked about the degree to which elections have become the “main event” in our system of government and how there’s a need to elongate civic engagement beyond the “before elections/after elections” construct. That’s the work Civic Season does, and it really stood out to us. How are you encouraging people to keep up with the engagement they started, and in a way, elongating their civic engagement?
CK: For starters, we’re keeping momentum going — on the holidays-and-traditions circuit, we’re working with related efforts like Civic Holidays to connect in other key fall dates (Vote Early Day, Voter Registration Day) with action. We celebrated Constitution Week through a partnership with the daily civic-habits app, ActiVote, and look forward to Giving Tuesday as another action-oriented day for participation.
We’re delighted that Civic Season made a splash in the summer, and we’re extending this through the rest of the year by identifying monthly “Civic Season Actions” that you can take. We recognize the need for more “beginner” entry points — and not just for K-12 learners, but for busy adults with competing priorities. So simple, monthly actions accessible to anyone are one way we’re elongating the ways that people might recognize their own civic engagement activity. For example, in November, as we approach Thanksgiving, we encourage people to dig into their family history and talk to relatives about how our nation has changed in their lifetime.
And of course, we’re already planning for next year.
AM: What’s next for Civic Season?
CK: After significant analysis of this year’s effort, we’re convening groups of history professionals, civic practitioners and Gen Z leaders to start planning for Civic Season 2022. We are delighted to have received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to support this work, and look forward to bringing the Civic Season to more communities and more people next year. You can sign up to stay in the loop here.
Caroline Klibanoff is the Managing Director for Made by Us, a cross-institutional collaboration from America’s leading history organizations to engage Millennials and Gen Z with history and civic participation. Her work bridges civic participation, history and the public sphere, having worked for cultural heritage organizations including the MIT Museum and Cambridge Historical Society; think tanks like the Pew Research Center and the FrameWorks Institute; and serving as a strategist for the Bridge Alliance and Big Tent Nation, running the American Civic Collaboration “Civvys” Awards. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Public History from Northeastern University.
