Action Civics is a student-centered, project- based approach to civics education in which students learn tools of civic engagement by practicing civic action.

Students identify and decide top priorities for policy changes, and connect with decision- makers to put these priorities into practice. Generation Citizen (generationcitizen.org) and Mikva Challenge (mikvachallenge.org) are two national leaders in Action Civics.

Boards & Commisions have long been a staple of local, state, and federal governance. They’re receiving new attention as important pipelines for developing new community leaders, particularly people from low-income communities and communities of color. 

Urban Habitat’s Boards & Commissions Leadership Institute (bit.ly/2M5RG2o)  is one model for recruiting and empowering people from low-income communities and communities of color to serve on Boards & Commissions.

Civic Crowdfunding empowers neighbors to identify solutions to community problems, and raise community funds to implement their solutions. ioby (ioby.org) is a leader in Civic Crowdfunding—they provide a platform for projects to get funded, and technical assistance on navigating project design.

Legislative Theater invites community members to participate in interactive theater where they act out solutions to situations of oppression and work with officials to transform these solutions into new laws. Theater of the Oppressed NYC (tonyc.nyc) produces Legislative Theater across NYC—and provides assistance to organizations interested in using theater to inspire and enact social change.

Participatory Budgeting empowers community members to directly decide how to spend part of a public budget, brainstorm ideas, turn them into proposals, and vote to decide which proposals to fund. Participatory Budgeting Project (participatorybudgeting.org) is a national leader in creating, implementing, and supporting Participatory Budgeting processes.

Participatory Policy-making extends the participatory budgeting approach to policy- making, inviting residents to identify, develop, and vote on new policy proposals. For one model of a Participatory Policy-Making platform and process, see Civic Hall’s summary of the vTaiwan public engagement process: bit.ly/2ZDxOGV.

Placemaking uses participatory planning and design to enable community members to reimagine public parks, plazas, streets, markets, buildings, and neighborhoods.

Policy Juries convene a representative sample of a community and empowers them to produce a decision or statement on a public policy. Policy juries meet for several days before releasing a report or decision, which is often then put to a public vote via referendum. The Jefferson Center (jefferson-center.org) is a national leader in designing and implementing Policy Juries.