Civic Season: A New Civic Tradition
Elections — particularly Presidential Elections — are big in America. You can feel the rhythm of the season, as political yard signs go up, TV commercials become political ads, and phone calls turn out to be robocalls. For many, elections feel very present in our lives. Then Election Day passes, and we more or less return to our lives.
At PACE, we think a lot about the ways that Americans civically engage. In fact, we developed a Civic Engagement Primer to help define the term, and it identifies thirteen civic practices that make up civic engagement — only one of which is voting. And yet, voting and elections seem to be a major way we engage and measure engagement. Some PACE Members identified this dynamic during a recent imagination session in the aftermath of the 2020 Election, sharing this key insight:
The time “between elections” was a major area of discussion within our group, and we discussed the degree to which elections have become the “main event” in our system of government. They take up a lot of oxygen and it seems like, culturally, we have adopted them as the prime indicator of our civic health. In actuality, elections are one part of the overall civic engagement spectrum. How do we elongate civic engagement beyond this “before elections/after elections” construct? There are many other civic engagement practices and expressions of civic health that we should be promoting, but that also assumes Americans know that those things matter to a healthy democracy, feel incentivized to engage, and have access to the opportunities to get involved.
All of these reflections were in our backdrop when we heard about Civic Season — a new effort from Made By Us, Civics Unplugged, and over 100 partners including PACE Members National Archives Foundation and Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library.
Launching today, Civic Season’s goal is to create a new type of civic tradition, and it gives Americans another season — beyond election season — to engage. Civic Season runs from June 14 — July 5, 2021, and that is not by mistake. As they share: “The 4th of July commemorates the moment when a new generation boldly articulated the values of a new nation: freedom, equality, justice, rights and opportunity. Juneteenth, celebrated just a few weeks earlier, reminds us that people in America have fought to make those values a reality over hundreds of years — and we still have work to do. An annual Civic Season, bookended by these two significant celebrations, 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.”
The team of partners behind Civic Season have coordinated hundreds of ways to engage, from reading and exploring to creating and contributing to discussing and connecting. Particularly focused on getting 18–30 year olds civically engaged, activities can be filtered by area of interest (e.g. Independence + Freedom, Repairing + Remembering, How We Celebrate) and availability (e.g. full day, 2 hours, less than 10 minutes). As their website reminds: “There is more than one way to celebrate. Start anywhere, but get started.”
We wanted to spotlight this effort for philanthropy, particularly in its inaugural year. At this time of exploring new normals, Civic Season is asking if we could imagine a new kind of tradition, rooted in our history, which galvanizes the country in civic learning, action, and commitment. More than asking the question, they are building the opportunities and activities for millions of Americans to answer that call. We think this is worth holding up.
To learn more about Civic Season and find opportunities to engage, visit their website at www.thecivicseason.com or follow their hashtag #CivicSeason on social media.
