“By politics with a spiritual dimension [...] I understand a politics deriving from a strong and utterly personal sense of responsibility for the world, a politics deriving from the awareness that none of us as an individual can save the world as a whole, but that nevertheless, each of us must behave as though it were in our power to do so. [...] This politics is nothing more than a permanent challenge, a never-ending effort that can only, in the best possible case, leave behind it a certain trace of goodness.” (Havel, 1992)

As the 1990s unfolded, there was a strong sense among scholars and practitioners of politics alike that Western liberal democracies triumphed and that the lessons of ideological violence and fascism would not be ignored. Today, data compiled from more than 180 countries reach a worrisome conclusion ~ “30 years of democratic advances are now eradicated” writes the most recent Democracy Report 2022 from the V-Dem Institute. The United States follows this trend with worrisome developments against “legitimate opposition, pluralism, and counterarguments” which, in turn, allow authoritarian-minded leaders to successfully use mass mobilization for their anti-democratic agendas. National Louis University (NLU) and BUILD, Inc. in Chicago propose to respond to this erosion of the country’s democratic deliberative practices with youth-centered efforts to awaken a deep interest in tolerance and civic responsibility among the youth populations they serve. Guided by Havel’s vision of politics as a ‘never-ending effort’ that serves the common interest, a team of educators and community experts propose to work towards cultivating our youth’s democratic civic virtues to help them become better citizens. Thus, the proposal's overarching goal is to develop our youth’s constructive skills for engaging in democratic life.

Theoretical Model to Create Civic Engagement

Numerous studies on America’s civic health show a significant decline in membership in communally-oriented civic groups, social trust in people, trust in institutions, and interest in discussing political issues over the past thirty years6. These trends are especially visible among youth, with steeper rates among low-income and less-educated citizens, and among those of recent immigration origin and less proficient in English. Research shows that the overgrowing malaise with civic engagement, which translates into a less influential political voice and democratic erosion, can be offset with educational opportunities that allow youth to develop a sense that they have the capacity to act civically when they feel connected to groups who share the same concerns, and when they have formed strong commitments with social issues.

We propose to work towards implementing this civic engagement model of capacity - connection - commitment over a period of 12 months (June 2023-May 2024) through meetings among educational and community experts, youth workshops, and community-based research on civic initiatives in the Chicago area. We break down our approach into two distinct objectives:

1. Create spaces that generate informed and educated youth citizenry and increase youth commitment to political engagement.
2. Create a space that connects university resources with the community's needs to amplify community voices and co-create civic and political educational tools.

We represent two institutions located in Chicago serving mostly minority (African-American and Latinx), low-income, and first-generation college youth. National Louis University (NLU), an institution deeply committed to making higher education accessible to students of all backgrounds to uplift their communities, has recently received national recognition for its transformative approach to higher education. Moreover, NLU’s efforts towards voter awareness and student registration in the midterm elections were honored with the ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting award. At NLU, Dr. Magda Giurcanu, Dr. Judah Viola, and Joe Rice are committed to pooling their interdisciplinary professional expertise to develop youth’s capacity to participate in democratic conversations. Dr. Magda Giurcanu, an Assistant Professor, is a political scientist responsible for developing and teaching curricula on Civic Education and American Government in the Undergraduate College. Her interest in civic engagement stems from first-hand experiences with first free and fair elections in Romania, as a campaign organizer while in college, and later as an election observer during the country’s difficult democratization process. As a researcher, her work on democratization, accountability, and policy input has been presented at international conferences, sponsored by external grant-funding agencies, and published in well-ranked journals. Dr. Judah Viola, an Associate Professor in the College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, is a well-published community psychologist with extensive expertise in civic engagement, neighborhood revitalization, violence prevention, and intervention programs for the youth. He often consults with local nonprofits in program evaluation, community building, and collaborative community research. Joe Rice, M.A. in Political Science, is a restorative justice practitioner at National Louis and DePaul Universities, whose approach to teaching and institutional service is “pracademic”, insofar as he emphasizes student engagement in their communities. Joe also works as a mental health professional at Community First Medical Center on the West side of Chicago and serves as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.

BUILD, Inc. inspires hope and offers opportunities so youth facing systemic obstacles can achieve positive futures. Since 1969, BUILD has been a second family for Chicago’s marginalized youth, helping thousands of young people facing the steepest challenges—like poverty, involvement in the justice system, and chronic exposure to violence—become leaders in safer, stronger communities. BUILD now reaches 3,000+ youth and families annually through programming, outreach, and community events in six neighborhoods on Chicago’s West Side. Edwina Hamilton is the Senior Manager of the Austin Peace and Justice Center. Edwina has decades of experience working in Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods, as an educator, counselor, chaplain, and Restorative Justice (RJ) practitioner. In this role, Edwina helped lead the effort to bring a Restorative Justice Community Court to Austin; served as a RJ strategy lead for Austin’s Quality-of-Life Plan, Austin Forward. Together; and oversaw BUILD’s RJ work, promoting awareness, educating, and training youth, staff, and community residents in practice. Edwina now heads the team preparing to launch the Austin Peace and Justice Center. Her work includes helping teens and emerging adults who have traveled down the wrong path make positive changes in their lives through engagement in RJ practices, civic engagement, and self-empowerment. Edwina holds a BA in Psychology from Chicago State University, an MA in Psychology from the University of Phoenix, and an MDiv from Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.

We start with a 3-month brainstorming phase consisting of 2 institutional site visits and meetings between BUILD and NLU partners. Preliminary meetings with NLU Provost, Dr. Eddie Phillips, Emily Heitzman, Civic Engagement Center Coordinator, Dr. Magda Giurcanu (grant PI), Joseph Rice from NLU and Edwina Hamilton, Senior Manager, Alden Bell, Peace & Justice Center Manager of Training & Civic Engagement, and Derek Allen, Coordinator of Peace and Justice Center from BUILD took place in Nov 2022. A string of emails followed the meeting to narrow the overlap of academic expertise, BUILD’s needs, and youth interests. BUILD organized youth sessions to generate a list of youth workshop themes. We plan to continue these efforts to finalize the scope of youth workshops.

At NLU, we will start identifying the administrative and technical support available to create a webpage site to house all our outputs, which we consider a toolkit of successful practices and strategies. In addition, using Dr. Giurcanu’s theoretical knowledge and Dr. Viola’s expertise in project evaluation evolution and civic engagement, and with the assistance of a graduate student, we will set up a research study that will evaluate the impact of the civic engagement model on youth’s commitment to civic engagement. We will develop the literature review and methodology sections during this stage. We anticipate setting up an evaluation study to measure youth participants’ understanding of and commitment to political engagement and sense of empowerment before and after the intervention.

To work towards our second goal: NLU and BUILD will map out the community-based organizations in the Chicago area that share the same focus on youth activism. We will house this annotated bibliography of youth-focused community-based organizations on the webpage. In addition, we plan to produce podcast episodes consisting of interviews with local community leaders and organizers, and we will start identifying the technical assistance needed.

This is a six-month implementation phase that will deliver six community-based workshops on a series of topics related to youth empowerment, political engagement, and social activism. The workshops (1 per month) will be organized at the Peace and Justice Center located on BUILD’s newly renovated campus, and members from both institutions will participate. We anticipate 10-15 participants per workshop.

To reach broader audiences and amplify the voices of our community partners, we are producing six podcast episodes (1 per month) focused on the overarching theme of Youth Empowerment. The episodes will cover 30 min interviews with community organizers, academic experts, and local leaders in the Chicago areas identified during Phase 1 on themes important to our youth.

The last three months will be spent analyzing the data collected to assess the impact of our activities on youth’s sense of empowerment and intent toward civic engagement. Findings will be disseminated through political science conferences and published research. We will also put together a 1-day workshop at National Louis University to invite community leaders to share promising best-learned practices learned when working with youth. We will invite local legislators (aldermen, county board members, and state representatives) to a presentation at National Louis University. These final presentations and the research paper will be housed on the webpage.

Our broader commitment is to set up a well-connected community of experts and leaders that will continue working together on civic education beyond the limits of this grant.