Public space & democracy
Strengthening civic engagement through civic assets
Americans may be more disconnected from each other than ever before.
You can see it in many social and economic trends: With each passing year, we’re speaking to our neighbors less and trusting each other less. Faith in our civic institutions — government, business, the media — is declining. We’re more likely to live in neighborhoods that are economically segregated by income, and increasingly, segregated by political persuasion and cultural beliefs.
And while November’s election produced the largest voter turnout in American history, it’s clear our social fabric remains weakened by division, with many places facing profound difficulty solving collective problems at local, state and national levels. One need only look at the bitter partisan discourse that has followed the 2020 election to see what happens when people lack the ability and opportunity to make meaningful contact with each other. All of us suffer when we can no longer speak to each other across economic, cultural and partisan differences, particularly in times of crisis.
Public spaces will not solve all of our problems, yet we believe they are an important part of connecting Americans to each other. This is why Reimagining the Civic Commons has made civic engagement a core priority in our work. We believe well-designed, managed and programmed civic spaces can connect Americans in ways that build measurable trust and increase social capital.
When parks, trails, community centers, libraries — the civic assets that exist in every city — are engaging to enter and welcoming to all, trust and social capital increase, creating the civically-engaged residents we need for people, places and democracy to flourish. Multiple pieces of research over decades back this up: Social capital is higher in areas where people have access to high-quality, well-maintained public space, and more trust and social capital often leads to more civic engagement. Civic engagement isn’t just beneficial to communities; it’s also an indicator of well-being and health. In fact, civic engagement can create a virtuous “feedback loop,” in which healthier people participate in more civic activities, leading to greater health and well-being.
This year, despite the immense challenges of the pandemic, economic recession and widespread civil unrest, public space practitioners persevered to create and implement activities that built trust, strengthened residents’ civic engagement muscles and connected people to civic process and to each other. Their work provides great examples for others on how to leverage public space to improve the democratic process.
Memphis: Strengthening staff & resident civic engagement
“Using our riverfront — a place that so many Memphians visit — as a vessel to inform and educate citizens about how to strengthen local and national democracy seemed like a natural choice for us.” –Jamal Boddie, Memphis River Parks Partnership
Despite one of the most disruptive times in the city’s history, the Memphis River Parks Partnership developed and executed a strategy to ensure that the people who worked for the organization and visitors to parks were given every opportunity to participate in two meaningful civic activities: the 2020 Census and the November election.
Internally, Jamal Boddie, the Partnership’s Hyde Fellow in Community Engagement, worked to ensure that staff completed the 2020 Census questionnaire and registered to vote before the deadline. Jamal distributed election information and worked with every employee to create a voting plan. All staff was granted paid time off to vote, and any staff member wishing to volunteer at the polls was given an additional day of holiday to do so.
Externally, the Partnership staff created “Civic Engagement Week” to educate and inform Memphians about the importance of completing the registering to vote. Civic Engagement Week ran from September 21st to September 27th. To encourage registration and 2020 Census completion, the staff audited all visitor touchpoints to ensure easy distribution of voter registration information and census questions. For example, when visitors bought coffee, rented roller skates or rented a kayak, information was provided about completing the census or registering to vote via QR codes.
The Parks Partnership also worked with nearby St. Patrick’s Church on a voter registration drive. Church staff and volunteers tabled and canvassed Memphis’ riverfront every week to take advantage of the increase in park visitors since the pandemic. In all, St. Patrick’s registered over 900 Memphians.
The week continued with a stop by the “All In: A Fight for American Democracy” bus tour which held another voter registration drive and an outdoor showing of the “All In” documentary in Memphis’ River Garden park.
The annual “End of Summer Bash” on the Riverfront included all the activities of the yearly weekend celebration, but for the first time, civic engagement was embedded in the physically distanced fun. In Tom Lee Park, nearly 400 people skated for free, many others floated the river in kayaks and the park hosted a live broadcast from the Memphis School District radio station. At the same time, staff and volunteers canvassed these people enjoying the riverfront with voter registration information and census forms, talking with over 300 people and registering many new voters.
Philadelphia: Mobilizing in public space to address community needs
“This is your generation. You have to step up. We love you. We know you’re important. You have to know you’re important. Together we have to make sure we take care of ourselves for the next generation.” –Tonnetta Graham, Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation
After a spike in gun violence amidst the pandemic, the young men of the grassroots group Next Man Up came up with the idea of holding a ‘Stop the Violence’ rally in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Strawberry Mansion, located east of Fairmount Park. As of early October, Philadelphia had seen a 40 percent increase in gun violence, impacting 1,528 victims — including 364 who had lost their lives. Three-quarters of these were African American men between the ages of 18 and 40.
Next Man Up partnered with the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation and Townwatch Integrated Services to gather more than 100 residents to march through the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood, ending with a rally at Mander Recreation Center, at the heart of the community. Pastor Carl Day of Culture Changing Christians Worship Center (who recently made headlines for confronting President Trump about systemic racism), emphasized the importance of voting in the upcoming election and the connection to supporting urban communities.
Knowing the march would bring a good crowd, the Executive Director of Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation Tonnetta Graham mobilized census and voter registration volunteers from the Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney and the local census office to greet the marching crowd at Mander Recreation Center. While the recreation center itself has been closed due to the pandemic, the playground, fields and basketball courts have served as a critical amenity for the community throughout. To combat low participation rates in the 2020 Census, Strawberry Mansion CDC has been holding pop-up Census registration tables regularly throughout the North Philadelphia neighborhood. The goal: get neighbors registered to vote, get them counted in the census and most importantly, help them understand the importance of both to the community’s well-being.
Chicago: Engaging voters is part of caring for community
On October 8th and 9th, Rebuild Foundation partnered with visionary non-profit alt_Chicago and Nike Chicago to host a pop-up voter registration site at the nearby “alt_market.” The South Side alt_market, located in a formerly vacant storefront, is a place where neighbors apply the “give what you need, take what you need” philosophy, providing necessary food and household goods over the course of the pandemic. The alt_market has also become an important center of care, community sharing and connection — and was thus a good place to register voters for the upcoming election.
For two days in October, this partnership distributed free sports equipment to encourage residents to stay active during their time in isolation and registered community members to vote, ensuring their voices were heard on election day.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration of The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and local partners.
