A library is the quintessential civic institution. Our population’s current level of civic literacy and participation is low. Libraries must take up the challenge of assisting citizens to become more knowledgeable and involved. Come to this program on Civics for Adults: Enhancing Civic Knowledge / Inspiring Political Engagement and find out how your library can meet this challenge. Attendees will leave with examples of how to help citizens expand their ‘civic literacy’ skills and gain confidence in determining when information may be inaccurate or incomplete.
Critical thinking skills can be improved by challenging patrons with real world examples from political ads, news headlines, graphs, statistical data, etc. in a “what do you see here? / what is missing?” type of format, following up with strategies for finding accurate information, including at one’s library!
Citizen Advocacy is following a desire to improve one’s community - whether on a neighborhood, city, state or federal level. Citizens gain confidence to do so through a historical perspective of change, examples of successful advocacy, understanding who makes the “rules” and how to be heard, as well as being able to “track” civic/political issues.
