Meet the candidates

West Metro Encourages and Supports civic engagement

Civic engagement involves “working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.”

Civic engagement is accomplished through individual and collective actions such as:

–Activism/Advocacy: Involves organizing to bring about political or social change or to show support for, bring awareness to, or promote a particular cause or policy.

-Civic Learning: Acquiring knowledge of community, government, social issues, or political issues with or without the application of the knowledge

-Community Service/Volunteerism: Engaging in activities to benefit others or one’s community; such activities may or may not involve structured training and reflection.

-Philanthropy/Fundraising:Collection of resources (e.g., money, food, clothing, etc.) to benefit charitable organizations or agencies.
Political Engagement:Developing one’s own political understandings and views that may be expressed by challenging political ideas of others and/or influencing policies or political positions.

-Community Engaged Research: Creation of new knowledge in collaboration with or on behalf of a community partner that contributes to citizen learning within the presenting issue while also strengthening the well-being of the community by working to solve or understand an issue of public concern.

-Social Entrepreneurship/Social Innovation:Combining innovation, resourcefulness, and opportunity to address critical social and environmental challenges through the development of business models, products, or services.