Democracy is More for Youth

July 2, 2021 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

Democracy is more than a form of government. It is more than an individual attitude, a group process, or a way to educate people. It is all that, as well as the thread that ties together individuals, groups, and society through our thoughts, words, and actions. Democracy is a way of life. Undergirded by the values, beliefs and attitudes of everyone within a definable community, democracy is made visible in the personal interactions, the organizing structures, and the shared cultures among people.

Even though it’s often misunderstood as just the operational process for government, democracy is much more. It is apparent in the ways individuals visualize themselves and society; it is observable in the interactions between people at home, within communities, across nations, and around the world; and it is obvious throughout the values, operations, and outcomes of places shared among people.

In the lives of some young people, democracy is a living, breathing function that can constantly guide their lives, inform their thinking, and drive their actions. While that isn’t the reality for most young people today, it is the possibility of that reality that drives so many children and youth today to take action to change the world. The democratic potentials in the lives of the young include family life, where democracy can take root, grow and expand dramatically; education, where learning, teaching and leadership expand the present capacity of our democracy everyday; and community, where the voices of children and the voices of youth can be fully expressed in governance, social capital, volunteerism, and more.

Democracy can be practically expressed within family life, whether in the parent-child dynamic, sibling relationships, or the valuation and devaluation of birth families and chosen families. Expressed through culture and attitudes, democracy at home or the lack thereof is evident in the ways parents communicate with their children; the everyday treatment of be

Unfortunately, these same places are where democracy deficit disorder is most prevalent throughout our society.

Defining Community Engagement

January 11, 2020 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

For more than 20 years, I’ve been studying and practicing community engagement. Sometimes I’ve worked with parents, business owners, nonprofits, churches, government agencies and community groups; often, I’ve worked with children and youth and the adults who serve them. This article shares what I’ve learned are the elements of community engagement.

What Doesn’t Work

Before embarking on any exploration of community engagement, its important to understand that most definitions of the term are ill-conceived, if well-meaning. This is because most posit community engagement is either a process or an outcome that is definable according to the needs of the definer. For example, the CDC says community engagement is,

“the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people.”

This definition is meant to rationalize CDC’s mission to improve the health and well-being of people in the United States. The unfortunate part of the CDC salamugundi is that it tosses the values, beliefs and activities of everyday people to the wind by insisting we line up according to CDC’s purpose.

Community engagement is both more than this and less.

In Practical Terms

“Community engagement happens when groups of who identify together choose the same things over and over.” – Adam Fletcher

Based on my experiences as a community engagement practitioner, organizational consultant and as an activist/sociologist, that’s the most practical, operative and fair definition of community engagement today. I came to understand engagement this way just within the last few years as I worked with groups of disenfranchised families involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems in Washington state.

What these families taught me is that our systems are so fraught with discrimination against working class and low-income people, and so regularly express subjective bias against people of color, that they cannot clearly see or understand exactly what constitutes community engagement within and throughout these communities. Middle class white culture pervades almost every popular notion of community engagement today.

Community engagement does not rely on phycological, emotional, cultural or educational connections; it is not reliant on your notions of positivity or purposefulness, and; it does not necessitate specific inputs or outcomes. Instead, it is simply choosing the same things again and again.

Just because, as a whole, a group of people who co-identify smokes pot, steals cable TV, distrusts police or otherwise acts in ways that white middle class people don’t agree with, that doesn’t mean they are not experiencing community engagement.

Similarly, when a group of people shows up to volunteer for a few hours, or does yoga together for 90 minutes, or sends a flurry of one-time emails to a politician about a subject, they are not necessarily experiencing community engagement.

Fully understanding the definition I’ve shared here is trickier than it appears, and warrants further examination in a different post. I’d love to hear your thoughts about what I’ve shared so far; please leave them in the comments section.

Using the Engagement Box

July 1, 2015 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

More than a decade ago, I attended a seminar where the facilitator talked about clients’ walls. They felt stonewalled by someone they were trying to reach out to. Focusing on in-person meetings, using the phone, email and even social media, this facilitator shared 5 ways to destroy client walls and overcome reluctant prospects.

From the start, I felt there was something wrong with all of this.

Since 2001, I’ve been working with organizations around the world to understand their clients. Studying research carefully, I’ve also collected hundreds of stories of when people said they felt most engaged in things they needed to do.

From my work, I’ve learned that when client walls go up, the problem isn’t them—its us. That can be hard for people to understand or accept, so I want to share a tool I have created to think differently about it.

Following is my Engagement Box. It can be used by anyone trying to connect with other people, including salespeople, managers, teachers, social workers, politicians and others. It can be especially useful when client walls go up!

Description of the Engagement Box

The Engagement Box is made of four walls, and divided in four by an x axis and a y axis. The x axis is marked “Traditional” at the left, and “Nontraditional” at the right. The y axis marked “Convenient” at the top, and “Inconvenient” at the bottom. This tool is from your perspective as the user.

Each quadrant of the Engagement Box should be labeled accordingly:

Between “Traditional” and “Convenient”, the quadrant should be marked “Traditional & Convenient Engagement”;
Between “Traditional” and “Inconvenient”, the quadrant should be marked “Traditional & Inconvenient”;
Between “Nontraditional” and “Convenient”, mark the quadrant “Nontraditional & Convenient”;
In the last quadrant between “Nontraditional” and “Inconvenient”, mark the box “Nontraditional & Inconvenient”.

Using the Engagement Box

To use the Engagement Box, the first thing you should do is pull out two blank pieces of paper. On the first, draw a line down the middle.

In the left column, write all of the things—everything—you currently do to engagement your clients, whether they’re potential customers, employees, students, food stamp recipients, or others. Write all of this on a piece of paper.

In the right column, brainstorm all of the things you could do to engage your current and potential clients and list them. Remember that in a brainstorm there are no dumb ideas, so don’t inhibit yourself.

When you’ve completed that, take out the blank page and draw the Engagement on it, filling the entire page. Follow the directions above.

On the second sheet, copy the graphic of the Engagement Box detailed above.

Then, read through the columns you’ve written already. On each, circle the items you want to keep doing or start doing.

Then take those items, and write them into the corresponding quadrants of the Engagement Box using the following questions:

Is this activity something that is easy for you? Then it belongs to the “Convenient” axis.
Is this activity something you or your organization has always done? Then it belongs to the “Traditional” axis.

If an activity is “Convenient” and “Traditional” then it goes in the quadrant you’ve labeled “Convenient & Traditional”. Do this in all four quadrants.

Its NOT All About You

When you’ve finished filling out all four quadrants, take a quick tally. Are most of your current activities in the “Convenient & Traditional” quadrant? That means that you’re doing most things for yourself and not for your client. The reason their walls are going up is that you are not meeting them where they are at. Instead, you’re insisting they come to where you are.

Differently, if all of your brainstormed activities are in the “Inconvenient & Nontraditional” quadrant, then you are trying to meet people where they are.

Engaging with your clients, whoever they are, is not all about you—but a lot of it is. As I’ve led thousands of people through this activity, I have seen eyes open and heard the power of learning to see things a new way. Suddenly, business owners have seen where they’re losing customers, principals have seen why students are dropping out, and managers have seen why they can’t retain employees.

By shifting your perspective from meeting your own needs to actually meeting your clients’ needs, you can also see other effects. You might grow compassion, discover empathy and feel reciprocity. You could also stop some of your bad habits and rejuvenate your perspectives towards the people you serve and work with everyday.

Teddy Roosevelt once wrote, “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Ultimately, the Engagement Box can teach you how to show people how much you care.

THAT is the secret of bringing down the walls.

Youth Involvement in Political Campaigns

May 7, 2015 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

There are a lot of things that youth could do to become involved in political campaigns. In the past, youth involvement has ranged from every traditional thing you can think of including volunteering, letter writing, attending rallies and meetings, door knocking, etc. to more current things like blasting messages out to friends on social media, wearing tshirts, making videos and all that. All of those are things that youth can do, and many presidential campaigns will share opportunities like that. Youth are a coveted voting and promotional demographic.

However, what I do is train young people and adults about adultism, which is bias towards adults. We help youth and their allies understand that adultism is inherent throughout the American political system, starting with the voting age, extending to the age of candidacy for many political offices, and reaching across every political issue on the landscape. Through workshops, publications and speeches, I train that youth under the age of 18 are routinely neglected by politicians. They aren’t seen as full citizens, their opinions aren’t treated as valid concerns, and their energy is generally tokenized and manipulated by candidates who will not fairly represent youth if they’re elected.

I do that because youth pay taxes. I do that because youth often fulfill their civic responsibility of obtaining an education. I do that because youth are full human beings from the day they are born, but are not treated as such until they are granted the right to vote (and not even then by some circumstances). I do that because young people under 18 make up 26% of the American population, and make up 0% of the voting population.

After all that, some adults, including politicians, wonder why youth don’t vote as soon as they can? The real surprise is that people whose economic, cultural, social and familial contributions are routinely neglected actually bother to show up ever once they can vote.

Through The Freechild Project, I help youth get involved by working with organizations that serve youth to help them understand how youth can be successfully involved in activities that empower them before they reaching voting age. I teach schools how to engage students so that when society expects them to become engaged in voting they actually will. I write books, articles and more to help spread the word. And I share things through Freechild every single day.

There’s a lot society can do to improve the situation, and I’d love to share some thoughts on that if you want to know.

Doing It for the Reward

February 11, 2015 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

I don’t think we should be trying to help others until we’ve acknowledged the ways others have helped us.

We should learn how to help ourselves, too, either by helping others or simply focusing on ourselves.

Helping others in order to feel better about ourselves is a trap though.

We have to learn to find happiness in helping others without expecting reward or acknowledgment. Everyone learns that differently: some as missionaries, ascetics, or ministers, while others are artists, teachers, or nonprofit workers.

When we find happiness in helping others without expecting reward or acknowledgment, only then are we truly helping them, and truly benefiting ourselves.

I have learned that in the grand scheme of things, humanity is largely indifferent to our individual, specific existences. I don’t mean that in a demeaning way, but in a realistic way. Where one person dies, a dozen others take their places within moments. Each person is like a finger poking into a sand dune, even the movie stars, movement leaders and presidents.

So if we go around expecting recognition and doing things for others because we’re going to get something out of doing those things, not only are you going to be disappointed, but you’re going to be greedy, indifferent and incapable of actually helping anyone else in any substantive way.

Before helping others, we have to acknowledge how others have helped us, and some of us have to learn to help ourselves. Only then can we actually truly and really do something for someone else. But not until then.

16 Capacities to Change the World

December 18, 2013 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ 1 Comment

There are a lot of people who want to change the world. However, many get frustrated because they don’t know what it takes.

After more than a decade of teaching people around the world how to do it, I’ve decided to share this list of key skills, abilities, knowledge, and dispositions. They’re based off my life as I’ve worked for social justice, and they are what I’ve seen consistently in my mentors, heros, and students. These capacities make the difference between people who talk about changing the world and people who actually change the world.

14 Capacities to Change the World

Change Management—Successfully move people, leadership, and constituents through transitions and times of change.
Humility—Develop and maintain a modest view of your own importance in public and personal perspectives regarding your efforts.
Collaboration & Teamwork—Build and sustain the necessary group and cross-group cohesion and operations needed to maintain success.
Conflict Management—Identify and successfully navigate conflicts and problems from an operational, day-to-day perspective.
Decision-Making—Discern how, when, where, and why to make decisions, and how to help others make decisions, both on a micro- and meta-level scale.
Diversity & Cultural Competency—Acknowledge, embrace, and enable all sorts of differences as powerful motivators and assets.
Coaching—Guide, transition, and mentor others through their daily professional and personal challenges without attempting to teach or lead them.
Motivating & Empowering—Meaningfully engage others in consistent, substantive, and sustainable ways?
Personal & Professional Goal Development—Recognize your own goals and their relevance to your position, as well as help others do the same.
Knowledge Management—Using diverse ways of identifying, developing, sharing, and effectively using the knowledge of communities, individuals, and organizations to change the world.
Problem-Solving—Effectively, consistently, and realistically identify, address, critique, and re-imagine challenges.
Training & Facilitation—Successfully identify and meet the needs of people through group training and individual learning.
Verbal & Written Communication/Public Presentation—Engage the public through customer service and imaging.
Personal Engagement—Foster your own connection to the work you’re doing, maintain that connection, and sustain the relevance of the work you’re doing throughout your own life, as well as help others do the same.
Compassion—The ability to establish and foster empathy with people and places outside of your own personal or professional sphere.
Systems Thinking—Seeing how small things that seem separated can create big things through complicated interactions.

If you’re really interested in these capacities, send me a message for my free self-assessment tool. I also provide training and coaching in each of these capacities for groups and individuals.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below!

What Makes Us Human?

December 9, 2013 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

Who are we as individuals if we are not changing the world?

Who are we as a people if we are not changing the world?

There are many animals that are caught up in the nuances of altering their environment, transforming their thoughts, and modifying their actions. However, how many creatures do we know that do all three at the same time? Changing the world seems to be what makes us human.

A lot of people seem to believe they don’t have a role in changing the world. As I grow older, I see many of my friends relax into complacency, trusting that everything works “fine” or becoming completely oblivious to the situations in the world that need to change.

I have personally experienced the struggle of living in more dire circumstances where my basic needs weren’t met. In those times, changing the world seems to be the farthest thing away from your mind, as you become fixated on your next meal, keeping the electricity and water running, wearing sufficient clothes, if only to deal with your personal security, money, health and well-being, or illnesses. After that, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you start thinking about your family, friends, and intimate relationships.

After your relationships with others, you start considering your self-esteem and self-respect, including strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence, and freedom. However, after each of those needs are met, a person can become self-actualized, capable of doing anything a human can. At this point, they live by the reality that what a person can do, they must do.

Maybe everyone is living under the guise that they’re needy and without wholeness in their lives. Maybe, according to Maslow, there are few fully self-actualized people in the world actually realizing their ability and the necessity of changing the world. Each of us can do something, anything.

Someone once said, “Service is the rent we pay for living,” and maybe the secret to our full humanness is doing things for others besides yourself, no matter who you are or what relationship you have with the world around you. Our humanness- including the joy, struggle, certainty, confusion, daily living, and fantasies we all have- is the center of who we are and what we do. It is us!

Remember your humanity and do something. Please.

Democracy and Children: The Connection

May 22, 2013 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

Democratic participation relies on individuals taking collective ownership and deliberate roles in the societies where they live. From the earliest age children have the interest in their neighbors and communities to warrant actively engaging them in democracy; research, and international practice codified in the CRC, demonstrates that their evolving capacities necessitate opportunities for their active involvement.

Children’s participation embraces these realities by connecting young people with meaningful opportunities to share their knowledge, ideas, actions, and more.

For a long time children’s participation was seen as the obligation of child-serving organizations only. Over the last decade we have seen the expansion of this concept as children’s participation is increasingly seen as essential in and by schools; local, regional and international governments; community development organizations; and in other sectors. Initially viewing children’s participation as effective marketing, businesses also have realized the necessity of actively engaging young people. Today, they continue to enrich their activities through technology. As recent developments in the Middle East have shown us, many activists are also realizing the potential of children’s participation, as indeed, many activists in that region are children.

Children’s participation is democratic participation, and serves to nurture all of the skills and knowledge young people need in order to be successful members of democratic society. By increasing the frequency of children’s participation, organizations and individuals can deepen the impact children have throughout society. This will help alleviate many of the worst conditions facing our world today, and help democracy transition to the new forms it will be required to have in the near future as technology and necessity continue to drive growth.

100 Ways To Engage The World

May 7, 2013 ~ Adam F.C. Fletcher ~ Leave a comment

An engaged world is one where everyone lives fully and wholly, everyday in every way. Since 2010, the bevy of consultants and trainers with CommonAction have been working across the U.S. and Canada to promote the concept of an engaged world. We define engagement as the sustained connections people have to the world within and around them. We teach that becoming engaged in any way affects everybody. Read this list and learn why.

Engagement can happen in every way you can imagine. Here are 100 ways to be engaged.

100 Ways to Engage the World

Home—Get engaged in your day-to-day life.
Family—Engage with people you are born to and choose: brothers, sisters, parents, children, others.
Learning—Find ways to engage in your own learning no matter how old you are.
Water—Engaging in the surface cover of 72% of Earth includes swimming, drinking, and enjoying it.
Beauty—Becoming engaged in beautiful things can mean a lot to the beauty around you.
Work—Engaging in what you make your livelihood in may be the key to your happiness.
Reading—Exploring literature about new topics, your interests, or art can be engaging.
Play—Find engaging ways to dig into the things you enjoy, and enjoy them more.
Hospitals—Develop sustained connections with people who are recovering and emerging from care.
Breathing—Get consciously engaged in the moment-by-moment function of living, with purpose.
Advocacy—Standing with others and empowering the powerless can be very engaging.
Self-Empowerment—You can engage within yourself and discovering the role of yourself in the world.
Art—Engaging in art can mean creating it, viewing it, critiquing it, and more.
Peace—Fostering nonviolence in your life and the lives of others can be very engaging.
Friendships—Developing short or long term connections with people we choose can be engaging.
Wildlife—Surveying animals, studying birds, sustainable fishing and hunting can all be engaging.
Communication—It is engaging to share thoughts and wisdom with others in creative or direct ways.
Pets—Engaging in sustained connections to the animals kept as pets or helping others doing the same.
Critical Thinking—Developing sustained connections with honest, authentic, and real responses in you.
Parks—Go and walk, lay, eat, draw, paint, climb, run, paddle, swim, and have fun.
Friendships—The people you spend recreational time with want to be engaged with, too.
Physical Activity—Movement that supports healthy bodies can be very engaging.
Ethnic Backgrounds—Engage in learning about the backgrounds of people from specific places.
Nature—Find engagement in the gardens, forests, ocean, lawns, and air around you.
Neighboring—Actively knowing and interacting with the people around us can be engaging.
Community—Stand with people you relate to and engage with them.
Culture—Engage in the shared attitudes, traditions, and actions of a connected background.
Libraries—Be in these public places designed to share free learning with the masses.
Coaching—Engage in provide encouragement and support to people trying to achieve things.
Music—Sharing melodies within or outside yourself can be very engaging.
Health—Getting engaged in your health and well-being can connect you deeply with your body.
Neighborhood—Engage in the place you live, work, play, and grow everyday.
Homemaking—Nurturing family by building the capacity of children and parents can be engaging.
Community Centers—Get engage in the places where community is fostered in play and sharing.
Anti-Racism—Challenging racist thinking and action can be very engaging.
Music—Listen, share, create, dream, sleep, and breathe engagement in the sounds of life.
Place-Based Connections—Living rural, urban, or broadly can be engaging when done intentionally.
Teaching—Facilitating others learning experiences can be a deep avenue for engagement.
Mediation—Developing deep connection in resolving self-conflict and other’s can be illuminating.
Self-Development—Engage in challenging negative assumptions or building skills and knowledge.
Globalization—Engaging in enriching world perspectives and uniting cultures.
Hiking—Walking, climbing, and otherwise traveling by foot can be very engaging.
Nonprofits—Engaging with staff who are building on missions to help the world.
Poetry—Engaging in the feelings, motions, ideas, and thoughts of others can happen through poetry.
Refugees—Supporting people who escape from oppression or suffering can be engaging.
Love—Know the greatest engagement in deep love for the universe and all that is within it.
Cooking—Engaging in foods and meal-making can be sustained throughout a lifetime.
Homelessness—Create lasting connection with youth, families, and others without a permanent home.
Farming—Growing food and consuming local farm food can be deeply engaging.
Heritage—Become engaged in the history of your neighborhood, family, or other identity.
Disconnection—Engaging in fostering healthy disconnection and bridging new ones can be vital.
Construction—Fostering lifelong connections to building homes and places for others matters.
Volunteering—Engaging in supporting others, places, or issues can be rich and exciting.
Relief—When places cannot get enough of what they need, it is engaging to provide relief.
Nutrition—Learning about healthy eating, food knowledge, and diverse food sourcing is engaging.
Sports—Being engaged in athletic play, competition, or achievement can be sustained.
Finances—Engaging in personal, community, company, or cultural economics can be rich.
Politics—Develop lasting connections to the formal and informal structures of influence and power.
Crafts—Creating homemade supplies, arts, food, clothing, and other items can be engaging.
Orphans—Engage with children and youth without parents through mentoring and other ways.
Schools—Teach, learn, or help others do the same in the formal places where education happens.
Outdoor Education—Deep connections in facilitating outdoor learning can change the world.
Decision-Making—Lean into the decisions you make everyday to engage in them meaningfully.
Government—Engage deeply in the social structures designed to ensure people can engage.
Education—Engaging in the challenges and opportunities others face in learning can change your life.
Small Business—Supporting and creating local, small, and nimble business can be very engaging.
Writing—Making imagination and knowledge pour on paper can be engaging.
Travel—Becoming engaged in visiting places you aren’t familiar with can defeat ignorance.
Restoration—To engage in bringing life to old things can be enlightening and powerful.
Evaluation—Look at your own life, the world you live in, and the people you are engaged with.
Repairs—Fixing broken things can be engaging.
Protesting—Engage in sharing concerns with lawmakers and officials about issues that concern you.
Internet—You can engage in connecting, learning, and creating content on the web.
Reporting—Engage in sharing news, stories, and details with others in dynamic ways.
Senior Centers—In can be very engaging to be with learned wisdom goes towards the end of life.
Tutoring—Helping learners discover their capabilities in any topic can be very engaging.
Strategic Thinking—Become engaged in new and logical avenues for seeing wisdom.
Environmental Restoration—Engage in rebuilding and enriching the natural cycle of life on Earth.
Emergencies—Engaging with others in times of need and crises matters immensely.
Clubs—Connecting over professional and personal interests can be engaging.
Parenting—Engaging with being intentional in childraising can be vital.
Philanthropy—Engage with issues that matter by fundraising and giving money to causes.
Trees—Examining, learning, reforesting, planting, preserving, or caring for trees can be engaging.
Media-making—Engage in creating websites, newspapers, television, videos, and other media.
Fun—Engage in creating, becoming part of, or expanding fun in your own life or with others.
Driving—Exploring new spaces and examining where you already live can be engaging.
Languages—Engaging in languages can mean listening, speaking, or exploring communication.
Solar Power—Connecting deeply with alternative energy can change the world and yourself.
Identity Issues—Fostering and exploring connectivity between and within identities can be engaging.
Playgrounds—Engaging in play with your children is supporting their engagement in play.
Clothing—Establish deep connections with other’s and your own clothing needs.
Dance—Creative movement, motion, rhythm, and melodic play are all engaging activities.
Self-Teaching—Learning new things and developing your understandings can be engaging.
Intergenerational Partnerships—Engage in forming deep connections beyond your age group.
Civic Action—Volunteering, voting, connecting, and building in communities can be engaging.
Healthcare—Engaging in making sure everyone can access healthcare is important.
Social Engagement—Fostering sustainable connections to the world around you is vital.
Personal Engagement—Recognizing the ways you’re engaged within yourself can be essential.
Languages—Learning, examining, and exploring different ways people communicate can be engaging.
Inequality—Bridging social, cultural, and structural differences can be engaging.

If you’re interested, I have written a lot about how to become more engaged, and simply acknowledging the things you’re already engaged in.

How do you engage YOU? How would you engage the world? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Category: civic engagement