Our Common Purpose Newsletter | February 2024
By Zachey Kliger | zachey.kliger@gmail.com | February 25, 2024
A healthy democracy requires both responsive political institutions, and a robust civic culture of participation and responsibility that are mutually reinforcing. In 2024, we continue efforts to support the renovation of American democracy by prioritizing initiatives that advance the Our Common Purpose recommendations. These include: enacting Supreme Court term limits, creating a cultural expectation of national service, preparing democratic citizens in higher education, promoting a healthy civic culture, supporting democracy reform locally, uplifting champions from across the democracy spectrum, and commemorating America’s 250th anniversary in 2026. Learn more about these initiatives on our website.
The Trust for Civic Life Seeks Grant Nominations
The Trust for Civic Life is a grantmaking collaborative that connects national and regional funders with the local people, places, and programs that bring communities together to solve problems, build trust, and strengthen our democracy. The Trust emerged from the Our Common Purpose report and recently launched their new website. The Trust is currently accepting nominations for the initial grant cycle focused on hubs in rural regions of the United States. Hubs are defined as anchor institutions, community foundations, nonprofit networks, or small businesses that serve as trusted intermediaries for building local civic programming and cultivating and distributing needed resources. For more information, please visit their website at www.trustforciviclife.org
Stories From The Field
California Civic Learning Summit.
On February 13, Californians for Civic Learning hosted policymakers and educators to discuss strategies and policies to make civic learning a priority for all California students. Legislation (SB 1094) was recently introduced in the California State Legislature that would require elementary and secondary schools to establish civic learning pathways for students.
Report: Secretaries of State Should Champion Civics.
A new report from Generation Citizen explains how Secretaries of States can be public champions of civics education.
More Perfect Co-hosts the Symposium on Service.
On January 8, More Perfect co-hosted the Why We Serve Symposium with Utah Governor Spencer Cox, during which the Governor announced a comprehensive plan to advance service in the state.
Service Year Alliance Applauds States Promoting Service.
Service Year Alliance celebrated recent actions taken by governors in Utah, New York, California, and Maryland to scale service year programs in their states.
Resource Tracks Implementation of Democracy Reforms.
FixUs published an update of its “Solutions Landscape,” a resource that explains and tracks the implementation status of various democracy reform proposals, including OCP recommendations such as redistricting reform, ranked choice voting, multimember districts, money-in-politics reform, and Supreme Court term limits.
Members of Congress Recognized for Democracy Work.
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) awarded Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) with the 2024 Democracy Awards in recognition of a lifetime of exemplary public service in Congress.
In The News
Danielle Allen: Build a supermajority for constitutional democracy.
Forging a cross-ideological supermajority in support of the core norms of constitutional democracy is our single most important task, writes Danielle Allen in The Washington Post.
New York creates an Office of Service and Civic Engagement
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) launched the Office of Service and Civic Engagement to oversee the state’s strategy on promoting public service opportunities.
Will the 2024 election rip America apart? Here's how we can hold it together.
Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of the Civic Health Project, writes in USA Today that we must recommit to our fellow Americans ahead of this year’s Presidential election.
David Brooks in NYT: The cure for what ails our Democracy.
Commission member David Brooks writes that embracing pluralism is our best hope for preserving democracy.
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