CIRCLE
Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service
Lincoln Filene Hall
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
Phone: 617-627-4781
www.civicyouth.org

Stereotypes of young people as disengaged citizens are damaging and inaccurate.  Countering this perception is CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a program of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University.  Since 2001, it has been the leading force in building the research field on the civic and political engagement of young Americans, and has begun to change public discourse and press coverage about young people as citizens.  In the past eight years, CIRCLE has changed political campaigns in America by helping to show that it is cost-effective to mobilize people between the ages of 18 and 30.  In the 2008 elections, 2 million more Americans under the age of 30 voted as compared with 2004.  The percentage of young voters was up 11% since 1996.  CIRCLE provides a stream of reliable data and analysis that helps Americans to understand the strengths and weaknesses of civic education.  It was founded through a grant from Pew Charitable Trusts.

Email us at info@SomervilleVoices.org
www.somervillevoices.com

Online forums have been around for decades, but Somerville Voices is cutting new ground in citizen-driven independent media with high journalistic integrity.  The website promotes an open forum for broad-based dialog to cover important community issues and events that is uniquely produced by and for people who live or work in the city.  It demonstrates the constructive capacity of internet technology to connect a local community to the places, events, and opinions that matter to residents.  Somerville Voices is a completely volunteer-run project.  Some of its innovations and impacts are as follows:

• Somerville Voices is considering the implementation of a unique funding idea called "Crowd Funding".  Online journalists can present reporting ideas with a budget that can be directly funded by readers.
  
• By employing a board of volunteer citizen editors, the online journal has helped create a safe environment for "old Somerville" and "new Somerville" to engage directly.

Boston has set a precedent in its approach to municipal wireless Internet.  A partnership with an independent nonprofit organization, OpenAirBoston.net (OAB), will allow all Boston businesses, residents, and tourists to access affordable and reliable service.  OAB is a private, non-profit corporation created specifically to develop, implement, and operate affordable wireless Internet access throughout the City of Boston.  The relationship will allow Boston to meet three essential goals: 1) ameliorate the Digital Divide 2) stimulate economic development and 3) improve the quality of city services.  Unlike other cities aiming to establish municipal wireless through close affiliation with a handful of technology corporations (such as San Francisco’s partnership with Google), Boston will manage this as a public process with full transparency and accountability. 

• A pilot project in 2008 made internet at $9.95 per month available to approximately 20,000 people in Boston's Grove Hall neighborhood.
  
• Recent implementation in Fenway area used open source and micro-mesh routers, whose lower costs enabled internet service to be provided for free.
  
• Mission Hill and Codman Square will be the next areas to receive the service.
  

Somerville, Massachusetts was the first New England city to establish a municipal call center and help desk in 2006.  The program allows residents, city employees, and City Aldermen to report non-emergency situations to local government and to efficiently track City Hall's response.  The innovative system -- which can be accessed by dialing 311 from any Somerville phone -- provides residents with one central mechanism to make service requests and obtain valuable information about city and neighborhood services and activities.  Residents can submit work requests via the web, and easily monitor their completion through the help desk tracking system.  The tracking system allows the city to identify trends in service requests, assess how quickly they are being addressed, and decide how to best allocate resources within departments and across city government, improving efficiency and increasing transparency.

• As of May 2008, the call center was averaging 2,000 calls per week and fielding 2,000 more customers via the internet.
• A welcome desk staffed by a 311 customer service representative was added to the City Hall lobby in 2006.
• 311 is available from all major landline providers as well as from cellular phones serviced by T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Spring/Nextel.

Founded in 2002, the Massachusetts Government Appointments Project (MassGAP) works to increase the number of women appointed to high-level state government positions in Massachusetts.  The initiative engages actively with gubernatorial candidates only before and after elections to ensure that women are appointed to high posts, helping to close the traditional gender gap in state government.  Working in cooperation with the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, MassGAP is an integral part of Massachusetts’s drive to promote full equality for women in all areas of life.  Since its founding, the initiative has enjoyed considerable success:

• Before MassGAP was founded in 2002, only 30% of the top high-level appointed positions in Massachusetts were occupied by women.
  
• After MassGAP's initial success, the State University of New York (SUNY) ranked Massachusetts first in the nation in female appointments.

A groundbreaking and award-winning organization established by the mayors and city managers of ten local cities -- Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Melrose, Medford, Quincy, Revere, and Somerville -- the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition is a voluntary, collaborative forum where members exchange information and formulate shared solutions. Results have demonstrated the tangible benefits achieved through collective action:

• Jointly purchased goods and services
• A joint Homeland Security application resulting in a $1.96 million grant
• A shared municipal finances relief agenda

The new Recovery.gov website provides an unprecedented degree of transparency in government-funded programs. It provides interactive tools to map spending across the nation, chart it on a timeline, and allow all citizens to submit feedback.  In the wake of billions of dollars of new spending this year, many Americans are calling for more accountability and transparency on the part of the federal government.  Internet technology promotes a new opportunity to engage all citizens on issues of national importance. The user-friendly format on Recovery.gov provides frequent updates, clear graphics, and many question-and-answer sections.

Be the Change, Inc.
2 Canal Park
Cambridge, MA 02141
Tel.: 617-252-2454
Fax: 617-761-3672
http://www.servicenation.org/

ServiceNation has utilized both new media and traditional advocacy techniques to shift national perception of volunteerism, particularly the "year of national service" concept.  Through its extensive presence in formats such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, ServiceNation is expanding the reach and appeal of service opportunities, and encouraging government officials to upscale proven service strategies to help address some of our nation's most important challenges.  ServiceNation hopes to see 100 million citizens volunteer a portion of their time by 2020.  ServiceNation activities to date include:

• The ServiceNation Summit and Presidential Candidate Forum September 11-12, 2008 brought together leaders from major non-profits, business, and government - including then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain - to make service a national priority.
• The September 27 ServiceNation Day of Action rallied Americans to work in their own communities and neighborhoods, resulting in more than 2,700 events across the country.
• During Inaugural Week 2009, ServiceNation celebrated the power and potential of service through a series of events around MLK Day.

Photovoices International is an international program that empowers indigenous peoples by giving them a "voice" through photography.  The program provides cameras and training for people to document important issues in their lives like the state of the natural environment, their traditional cultural values, and their community strengths and challenges.  By using simple cameras, photographs, and stories, indigenous people - who are not often conversant in their country's dominant language - gain a potent means to communicate their knowledge and concerns to international organizations and government officials.  The program is being implemented in China and Indonesia.

• In China, Photovoices selected four sites of ethnic minorities, encompassing 60 small villages and 200 photographers in the Yunnan Province. They produced over 50,000 images with 15,000 accompanying stories.
  
• In Indonesia, Photovoices is working in the village of Lamalera, on the Island of Timor.  According to Photovoices, Lamalera is considered perhaps "the world's last traditional whaling village".  The project allows the native Boti people to document their lives for the outside world.

A new arm of the company responsible for the world's most popular search engine, Google.org, is leading the push for corporate action on the world's most intractable problems.  The organization is based on "doing well by doing good."  Google.org is a for-profit "socially conscious venture" that is working to solve the world's biggest problems through an innovative mix of entrepreneurship, investment in new ideas, and a commitment to spend Google's profits responsibly.  Google.org partners with venture capitalists to launch innovative ideas to address social and environmental concerns.  By refusing non-profit status and partnering with venture capitalists to invest in promising approaches, and helping to take them to scale, its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin say that they hope to garner significant financial resources to solve the world's problems.  They hope that Google.org will "someday eclipse Google itself in overall world impact."

Google.org has made "learning grants" to Acumen Fund, the Seva Foundation, and Planet Read, and supports the Grameen Foundation USA and Doctors Without Borders as well as more than 2,100 non-profit organizations in 16 countries with free advertising.

Ashoka invests in people.  It searches the world for leading social entrepreneurs and provides them with the financial resources they require to focus full time on spreading innovative ideas and building world-changing institutions.  Rather than investing in projects or programs, Ashoka's investment allows "Ashoka Fellows" to become changemakers--individuals with the drive, compassion, and ingenuity to help tackle the world's most pressing challenges.  Founded on the premise that the most effective way to promote positive social change is to invest in social entrepreneurs with sustainable and replicable solutions, Ashoka's work is putting humans and human capital at the center of development and social change.

Ashoka is currently a $30-million-dollar organization supporting the work of 2,000 fellows worldwide in more than 60 countries around the world.

TakingITGlobal.org brings social networking to the world of positive youth activism and is "the world's most popular online community for young people interested in making a difference." Through partnerships with global organizations, including the UN and major multinational corporations, TakingITGlobal.org connects youth from around the world, facilitating, inspiring, and supporting action in a variety of areas.  The highly interactive website takes advantage of the newest trends in online communication and IT technology--blogs, chats, streaming videos, and interactive tools--to provide a platform for the expression of and connection to opportunities for the world's greatest resource: youth.  As globalization erases the geographic boundaries separating the world's citizens, TakingITGlobal gives young citizens at the local level access to global colleagues.  A sample project includes Youth Island,  a collaboration with UNESCO, that focuses on youth in small island nations such as Samoa and Jamaica. TakingITGlobal has:

• More than 250,000 members in 261 countries and territories
• More than 1,500 self-generated projects
• Key partners including: UNESCO, UNICEF, and the Global Youth Action Network

Global Nomads Group (GNG) was founded in 1998 to foster dialogue and understanding among the world's youth. Using interactive technology like videoconferencing, it brings youth from around the world face-to-face to bridge the boundaries of cultural misconception and discuss issues. Students improve their communication, geographical and critical thinking skills, as well as their understanding of different cultures. GNG pairs schools and supplies them with videoconferencing or webcasting technology and supplementary reading materials. Its programs put youth in charge of their own education by using student moderators to lead discussions without the mediation of teachers or other adults.  It has already:

• Connected American students with youth from Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Iraq, and Honduras
• Fostered discussions on issues such as world religions, the Iraq War, the Sudan crisis, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Created virtual journeys to the ancient city of Petra, Mayan ruins in Honduras, and a Sudanese refugee camp