What's Civic Engagement?

In layman’s term, civic engagement is simply our collective actions designed to tackle issues of public concern and interest. These issues vary in scope and size. In this particular context, to be civically engaged is to get our community based group to work together to solve a problem or just to interact on a more frequent basis in order to alleviate apprehension and to instill trust. Some of the ways you can be civically engaged include but are not limited to the following:

1. Make the charity of time
2. Volunteer and ask others to do the same
3. Attend town meetings
4. Support local merchants
5. Volunteer your and commit to it
6. Donate blood
7. Start a community garden
8. Assist someone of a different ethnic or religious group
9. Visit the sick at a hospital
10. Don't gossip, don't gossip, don't gossip
11. Help fix someone's flat tire
12. Attend your children's athletic events, plays and recitals
13. Get to know your children's teachers
14. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores
15. Attend PTA meetings
16. Give to your local food bank
17. Participate in a walk-a-thon
18. Join or start a babysitting cooperative
19. Answer academic surveys when asked
20. Invite local government officials to speak at your gatherings
21. Form a local outdoor activity group
22. Participate in political campaigns
23. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don't have a kid playing
24. Help run the concession stand at the Little League field
25. Form a "tools cooperative" with neighbors and share ladders, snow blowers, etc.
26. Run for public office
27. Stop and make sure the person on the side of the highway is all right
28. Go to your place of worship with your children–talk to them about spirituality
29. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for a lonely elder who lives nearby
30. Say "thanks you" often
31. Join a nonprofit board of directors
32. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery
33. Turn off the TV and talk with friends or family
34. Hold a neighborhood barbecue
35. Bake cookies for new neighbors or work colleagues
36. Volunteer at the library
37. Raise funds for the local library
38. Return a lost wallet
39. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate
40. Say hello to strangers
41. Volunteer to drive someone
42. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on- Wheels in your neighborhood
43. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others' self worth
44. Check on an elderly neighbor
45. Cut back on television
46. Join in to help carry something heavy
47. Buy a grill and invite others over for a meal
48. Pick it up even if you were not the one who littered
49. Help scrape ice off a neighbor’s car
50. Start a tradition
51. Share your snow blower
52. Help jump-start someone’s car
53. Be nice when you drive
54. Make gifts of time
56. Buy from a kid’s lemonade stand
57. Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full
58. Say “hello” to those in elevators
59. Offer to watch your neighbor’s home or apartment while they are away
60. Join groups that are likely to lead to making new friends of different race or ethnicity, different social class or bridging across other dimensions