On November 21st 2008, approximately 100 people; community members, college students, faculty, staff, and students from local high schools, gathered for the 3rd Annual Civic Skills Conference.
The day began at 7:45am with the Box City Project. Box City is a nationwide community-based education project created by the Center for Understanding the Built Environment. It teaches students, as well as adults, the importance of city planning and land use by allowing them to design and build their own city with cardboard boxes. There was an air of excitement and innovation in the Michigan Rooms that morning and each group shared a similar theme of how they wanted to “green” their community.
Box City concluded at 11:15am and everyone was invited to the North Bank Center for the Luncheon and Keynote Speakers, Ashley Atkinson, Director of Project Development and Urban Agriculture for The Greening of Detroit, and Flint’s own Erin Caudell, Outreach Program Coordinator for the Ruth Mott Foundation at Applewood.
At 12:45 the afternoon program began and the participants had 6 different sessions to choose from to hone their civic engagement skills. The options were:
· Making Your Case: Argument Construction 101, presented by Marcus Paroske;
· Taking Action: Personalized Politics and Social Change, presented by Dr. Heather Laube;
· Spreading the Word: The New Media, presented by Jonathan Jarosz, Assistant Director of University Outreach, and Christine Waters, American Democracy Project Faculty Fellow;
· Focus on Your Assets: Plug and Play Flint, presented by Gary Ashley, Joel Rash, and Mona Younis, University Outreach;
· Creative Collaboration: Multiple Organization Partnerships, presented by Erin Caudell and Franklin Pleasant, LINK Coordinator; and
· Layers of Local and Statewide Government, presented by David Lossing, University Government Relations Director.
At 2 pm, the High School students boarded their buses with their newly gained knowledge and those who remained had the option to attend another session as the first sessions were repeated and would conclude at 3pm.
The Civic Skills Conference is a great opportunity to refine one’s skills, learn what is new or cutting edge in the realm of civic engagement, and find out what others have been doing that has been successful. The slide show photos demonstrate that this was a great experience for all.
