Connecting Service and Politics

a model for revitalizing our democracy through civic engagement

The Concept:

Insert a brief description of why civic engagement matter to revitalizing our democracy, why Bonner sees this as essential to the service movement, and what it means to the student. It may be useful to include definitions of terms used throughout the model (civic engagement, civic agency, etc.)

Levels of Civic Agency:

Bridging the gap between service and politics can be best achieved along the Student Development Model. Here's a brief breakdown of each level (or class year). Click on each stage to learn more about it as well as relevant academic connections, readings, reflections, trainings, and skill-building techniques.

Exploration (First Year)

Bonner students focus on developing place-based knowledge of the community in which they're serving, as well as reflecting on that community's assets, needs, and the complexity of issues that community partners are working to address.  Click Here for the sequence of trainings for First Year (Exploration).

Experience (Second Year)

Bonner students focus on developing an understanding of different forms of civic engagement by distinguishing types of service and political engagement. Bonner students deepen their place-based knowledge with an issues-based understanding of root causes and possible solutions to the issues they're confronting.  Click Here for the sequence of trainings for Second Year (Experience).

Example (Third Year)

Bonner students will begin making thoughtful decisions about they ways they want to participate in the political process.  They focus on the ability to research and interpret public policies connected to their service, as well as forming policy or other structural responses. This policy-based knowledge give students the ability to articulate other courses of action and expand the impact of their work.  Click Here for the sequence of trainings for Third Year (Example).

Excellence (Fourth Year)

Bonner students focus on the ability to participate effectively in the political process based on their skill set and civic capacities in ways that extend their service to include broader and more complex solutions, perhaps those that combine direct service with engagement with policy and other resources. This action-based knowledge will help students plan for a future of life-long civic engagement.  Click Here for the sequence of trainings for Fourth Year (Excellence).

Resources

• Learn to Love Lobbying — Most nonprofits don't know how to lobby and, worse, think that it entails cutting shady deals with sleazy characters. In this lively and inspiring talk from theStanford Social Innovation Review's recent Nonprofit Management Institute, Fraser Nelson, nonprofit consultant and former executive director of the Disability Law Center of Utah, debunks the "it's not allowed," "it's too dangerous," and "it's too sleazy" arguments, demonstrating that lobbying is nothing more than educating legislators—a right that our democracy guarantees. To make the changes they want to see in the world, nonprofits must learn to lobby. And who knows? They may even learn to love it.   

>>Click to hear Fraser's talk (podcast) 

>>Click to read Fraser's SSIR article  

• Handbook: Effective Advocacy at All Levels of Government from the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest 
• Deliberative Democracy resource page

Videos

• How to Call Congress — The Senate

• How to Call Congress — The House of Representatives