Over the our Civic Engagement Summer Pilgrimage, the Institute for Community Leadership embarked on a six week journey where students, interns and staff traveled to 32 cities, urban and rural areas, and Native Nations interviewing people. We received over 200 responses after posing the question, “How can we get others civically engaged?”
Everyone has a story. On the Fourth of July Naturalization Ceremony we were honored by stories of tremendous sacrifice, hard work and courage. With voter registration forms in 11 languages, we gained strong appreciation for diversity of culture and contribution. Thanks to a great partnership with King County Elections, some of our team spent July 4 at Seattle Center Naturalization Ceremony, registering 109 new voters, and learning from others.
In addition, Civic engagement circles were also a part of our summer. Civic engagement circles are a grassroots discussion as to “why more people do not become civically engaged.” We carried out multiple circles, along with various other forms of creating discussion and providing knowledge and inspiration encouraging and assisting individuals in becoming actively engaged in different forms of civic engagement.