The purpose of this workshop is to introduce a framework to institutionalize democratic engagement equitably across a campus community. Facilitators will cover the Strengthening American Democracy template for writing democratic engagement plans and its sections, Leadership, Commitment, Landscape, Goals, Strategy, Reporting, and Evaluation. Facilitators and participants will review Votes and Ballots, which has turned the template into worksheets, a strategy poster, and tactic cards. Facilitators will highlight issues of diversity and inclusion throughout the planning process and materials, such as using the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) to identify politically-marginalized segments of the campus community by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and field of study. Participants will leave with the knowledge and resources necessary to facilitate the Votes and Ballots activity themselves. Strengthening American Democracy was developed by the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition including All In, AASCU’s American Democracy Project, Campus Compact’s The Democracy Commitment, Campus Vote Project, NASPA, and Young Invincibles. Votes and Ballots was developed by Democracy Works and Maryland Institute College of Art and was field tested at 7 conveings in Tennessee, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina. Facilitators will also reference Institutionalizing Voter Engagement, A Guide to Developing and Adopting Handbook Language.
Votes & Ballots materials are available
here.
