Civic Jobs

Your group's goal for the year is to build a citizenship toolkit on your topic. What does that mean? Essentially, you're creating a website full of resources that will equip a stranger with the tools they need for becoming civically engaged on your topic. To do that they'll need:

Information about the topic, including its broad history and social impact, up-to-date and reliable facts, and stories about how it affects everyday people.
Connections with other people working on this issue. This includes information about where their elected officials and political candidates stand on the topic and what nonprofit or political organizations work on the issue.
A starting point: a call to action to get them doing something right now on the issue. Raising awareness is good but this toolkit isn't just about showing people a bunch of shiny new tools, it's also about giving them a project they can work on right now.

Each position listed below is designed to produce a tool that will go into your group's toolkit over the course of the year. Not every position may be necessary for your specific group, and some roles could be combined. You may also want to add something that's not listed--that's OK too! Your TA will guide your group in assigning responsibilities that best match the skills in the room and will produce the best outcome for your toolkit. Good luck and enjoy!

CIVIC JOBS

OUTPUT

Book Review

SKILLS

Reading, Writing, Critical Thinking

DESCRIPTION

Your group will discuss the assigned text in your first meeting and come up with a general outline of the book review. It is your task to write up the review and add links to related content on the internet. See the template book review page for more information.

OUTPUT

Fact Sheet

Skills

Research, Graphic Design

Description

Your group will come up with a list of facts in meeting #2. It’s your job to fact check them, design a coherent fact sheet for the website toolkit, and add links to related content. See the template fact sheet page for more information.

OUTPUT

Digital History Page

SKILLS

Writing, Research, Web Development, Design

DESCRIPTION

This is a really open-ended project that you can design as you would like. You’ll get a list of questions about the history and context of your topic to give you a starting point but then you can take it where you'd like. You can rely on the research your group does throughout the year to answer the questions and design a web page to display your work. See the template history page for more information.

OUTPUT

"Learn More" Page

SKILLS

Research, Reading, Writing

DESCRIPTION

Your task is to curate the “Learn More” page in your toolkit by finding great writing and reporting on your topic. The Learn More page could be an amazing resource for people who are interested in your issue but don't know much about it and may not be able to read a full academic book to become more informed. See the template "Learn More" page for more information.

OUTPUT

"KNOW YOUR RIGHTS" Page

SKILLS

Research, Writing

DESCRIPTION

Does your topic involve people who come in contact with the police, courts, or social services? They may not know their basic rights. Building this page requires extreme care--you don't want to misinform people--but can be incredibly valuable to someone in a precarious situation. See the template "Know Your Rights" page for more information.

OUTPUT

Interviews, "Get Connected" Page

SKILLS

Organization and leadership, writing, web design, video editing (possibly)

DESCRIPTION

In meetings #4 - 6 your group will conduct at least 1 interview with someone working on your topic. While everyone should be involved it's your responsibility to make sure the interview actually happens by coordinating between the interviewee and your group. You'll make sure the interview goes smoothly and gets recorded and then you'll build the web page to showcase your interview and help other people get connected to similar organizations. See the "Get Connected" template page for more information.

OUTPUT

"Political Engagement" Page

SKILLS

Research, Video Editing, Writing, Web Design

DESCRIPTION

After your group does some research on political candidates in meeting #3 you'll record video of yourselves calling your representatives. It's your job to help other people do the same by building a page that connects individuals to their representatives, explains where candidates stand on your issue, and gives samples of students calling and writing to their elected representatives. See the template "Political Engagement" page for more information.

OUTPUT

Call to Action

SKILLS

Leadership, Organization, Teamwork, Persistence

DESCRIPTION

Everyone is involved in the call to action, but getting from an idea to a final product takes some leadership. It will be your responsibility to lead the group in meeting #9 to decide on a call to action and write up a plan of how they'll get it done by May 8.

OUTPUT

Citizenship Toolkit

SKILLS

Web Development: No prior experience necessary but attention to detail, organization, and patience are key!

DESCRIPTION

As your group produces content for the citizenship toolkit throughout the year you'll add it to the website. You'll also search the site for related content from past years and add links on your group's site to keep the projects connected. You'll advise other members about what they can do with their pages and help them realize their visions.

*In addition to conducting interviews, your group must attend at least one event in the community related to your project. You might attend a university conference, go to a city council meeting, participate in a march or demonstration, or hear a talk at a museum (for example). Discuss as a group whether one person should take the lead in researching events and coordinating with group members to go or if this something you'll all work on together.

Return to 2019 Civic Project Portal

Civic Jobs

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RESEARCHER

HISTORIAN

CURATOR

LAWYER

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