by Melanie Speir, Civil Engagement Committee Chair 

Are you ready for 2024…and beyond? How can we restore public trust in our elections?  How can we sing beyond the choir to engage community members in our democracy? How do we move forward in an environment of polarization and disinformation? What innovations are having success? 
 
These questions were explored in detail on Sept. 19th at the LWV/NICD Network's latest national Zoom event by a panel of five innovators in the field of Civic Engagement. 

It was an honor to have our Community Conversations, Civil Discourse, Mis/Disinformation program, and soon-to-be-launched Points of View program spotlighted nationally by our own Janet Hoy (pictured below).  Our entire League deserves congratulations for the material developed, tested, and beautifully presented by Janet.

Couldn’t make it?  You can listen to the video recording  and access the accompanying resource handouts on these links.  This material is cutting edge, research backed, and successful in practice.
 
Highlights of the event:  Past methods of involving people in the democratic process are no longer very effective.  New approaches that incorporate social media and new technologies, reassure people that the voting process is safe and understandable, and involve people in both large and small group interactions are more effective. 

• The link that Tommy Gong provided from the Contra Costa County website – Building Public Trust in Elections. It’s full of factual information that you will find useful and it’s a valuable reference to combat mis/disinformation. 
• The article by Matt Leighninger, What do people need to feel heard? provides research backed innovative ideas for creating effective and successful civic discussions: 

Other publications from Matt include Citizens Building Communities: The ABCs of Public Dialogue, the LWV publication he authored in 2005, and Infogagement-Citizenship and Democracy in the Age of Connection, where he goes into detail about “thick” and “thin” engagement. 

We are actively seeking new members for the Civil Discourse team - people who are concerned about political intimidation, polarization and misinformation! Please join this effort - we need all hands on deck this election year! 

To join the team or volunteer or for more information about Civil Discourse, please email us at civil.discourse [at] lwvdv.org (subject: Helping%20with%20Civil%20Discourse) .