Hands on Civics: An Approach to Increase Community Intelligence

Hands On Civics:

An Approach to Increase Community Intelligence

Democratic decision-making depends on an ability to consider various proposals, consult different perspectives and possibilities, and through collective process uncover the best. Good intentions count. In reality this is all too rare in our communities. For every person who honestly enters into a process of thoughtful discovery there are others interested only in their own opinion. They rigidly cling to their ideas, loudly proclaim their views, ignore others, and, if not accommodated, walk out blaming others. This bodes ill for the future of our society.

Pomegranate Center facilitates planning processes and involves people in the creation of community gathering places. We believe that the physical design of towns and cities powerfully influences social vitality and function. Over the past decade we've convened numerous public meetings and each time have seen how poorly prepared we modern citizens are to solve problems collectively. We need a new set of skills centered around peer learning.

To better prepare young people for such an interdisciplinary, team-based community process, we have developed a series of curricula (see below information on other programs). Our Hands On Civics program turns students into civic planners. The program requires them to design their own community and in the process begin to understand the complexities facing contemporary communities. Pomegranate Center developed the program in 1998 for a ninth grade class for academically at-risk students at Issaquah High school in cooperation with teachers Marianne Levann and Pam Reidenour.

In this program we:

* Engage students in hands-on activities
* Increase the understanding of urban design
* Foster connection between students and mentors
* Improve students' understanding of how individual ideas and actions can contribute to change
* Promote teamwork, cooperation, communication, and presentation skills
* Strengthen the connection between schools and community

The program begins with questions that measure the students' knowledge of basic concepts of urban design and planning terms—urban village, public transportation, affordable housing, row housing, etc.—and basic knowledge ("What is agriculture and why it is important?"). We often find huge gaps in the students' knowledge base (a pedestrian, for instance, is "a person who looks around for money or help."). The majority can't define agriculture ("Agriculture is different races."), and few can give examples of public transportation, or describe a watershed ("...where my parents keep their boat.").

We then show students multiple options of how communities can be designed. They see pictures of how people in other times or places design their communities. We bring in specialists who explain the basics of transportation, housing, open space, zoning, etc. As we go along, students develop a glossary of terms and definitions. They are introduced to maps and concepts of critical areas where they can't build. We introduce them to basic design tools—how to work with scale, read contours, etc.

Students are divided into small groups of four members each. We conduct a workshop on basic leadership and communication skills to help them be more constructive in their interaction. Then each group is asked to create a model community that accommodates 5000 people of all ages and income levels, dozens of businesses, schools, police stations, libraries, and parks. Each group has a choice about density (do people live in detached homes or apartments or high rises?), how to integrate different uses, allocation of open space, farmland, and modes of transportation. Each housing type is color coded so that everyone can see how integrated their design is at a glance. Each group writes a paper that describes their choices. After a series of discussions that help them decide the shape of their community, they create a draft map of their community.

It is fascinating to see what emerges from this process. In the majority of cases their communities are similar to the one in which they live. Issaquah is a community on the edge of the Seattle metropolitan area, and many students have grown up unable, at least initially, to conceive of anything different. Their first drafts are complicated networks of roads and cul de sacs with every bit of the land used up for homes and huge malls. More than one proposal has had seniors living in a segregated community somewhere on the edge, close enough to visit but far enough not to disturb those living in town.

Because the students' designs lack awareness of people different from themselves, we invent imaginary people—Alexa, a single mother with a low-paying job, and 72-year-old Robert who doesn't drive but still wants to get around. This stretches the students' imagination of who needs homes in their community. In the process, concepts of affordable housing and transit are explored. We encourage students to incorporate good ideas from other groups and to think creatively about plans that could be friendlier to nature and children. We encourage them to consider shortening driving distances between homes, shops, schools, and parks.

During this second phase of design, new and imaginative plans start to emerge. For many students the hands-on part of the program in which they actually cut, color and paste is the most engaging. We've had groups voluntarily meet in the evenings to perfect their plans, such is their energy for this work.

Students make their final presentation to the class. They have five minutes for presentation and Q & A follow-up. They must explain their plans and how they've made their choices. Post-program tests have revealed a 62% increase in their knowledge of community.

To complete the program we invite civic leaders—members of the Chamber of Commerce, planning director for the city, the mayor, and other community leaders—to attend the student presentation.

Over the course of three years we tested and refined the program. We raised funds for the initial project. We are now looking for interested partners—schools, teachers, communities—who can take this program to the next stage.

Hands On Civics has proven to be an effective and fun way to prepare young people to become citizens more capable of solving complex community problems.

About the author

Milenko Matanovic is the founding director of Pomegranate Center, a non-profit organization where art, public participation and community betterment converge. The Center coordinates the creation of community gathering places, and convenes public planning processes for trails, parks, town centers, community gardens and other public amenities. Milenko is a skilled facilitator and public speaker with two decades of experience helping people of divergent views solve problems together. He can be reached at milenko@pomegranate.org or at 425/557.6412.

For information on Pomegranate Center, please visit www.pomegranate.org

In addition to Hands on Civics, Pomegranate Center developed the Community Treasures curriculum that teaches youth about important assets of their community. In this program, young people nominate their own treasures—important views, artworks, events, buildings, gardens, institutions, and so on—and survey adults who nominate theirs. The treasures nominated most often are then researched, written about, and celebrated through artworks and gatherings where stewards of those treasures are congratulated and recognized. One of the four schools that implemented this program was Medina Elementary School in Bellevue under the leadership of Jeannine Rogel who involved the entire school in this program which culminated in a day-long celebration and exhibit, several publications, and awards that students gave to individuals connected with the selected treasures. In 1998, the King County Historical Society recognized the program as that years' most effective historic preservation program.

Project Trash-Hold addresses the connection between environmental deterioration and personal habits. Project Trash-Hold raises students' awareness of the power of the individual to both create problems and to solve them. In a kind of performance art, students collect all the trash they are personally responsible for creating and carry it with them in a trash bag (hence "Trash-Hold") wherever they go for a period of one week. During that week they receive information on recycling and pre-cycling options. Because of the hands-on approach, lessons that would otherwise remain abstract hit home with greater power. Three schools have implemented this program thus far.

Family Stories Quilt helps students collect important oral stories through interviews with family members. They then write up selected stories, learn them by heart and perform them in a school presentation that includes families and friends. Sharing the family story allows students to know each other in a larger context creating the possibility for greater understanding and tolerance. This program aims to increase students' sense of the classroom community, helping them recognize that everybody has an important story to tell. This program has been implemented in two elementary schools and one middle school, and has been taught to over one hundred teachers through the City University master program.

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