Citizen Mobilization: Or, Putting the "So What" in the "Now What"
by Kari Dunn Saratovsky on 13 Mar 2009
Throughout the past year, we have witnessed unprecedented levels of civic engagement. But for some the interest and excitement around the political process seemed to trail off after the November 4 Election -- and for others in January after the historic inauguration of President Obama.
However, with the pressing economic, environmental, and global issues facing us as a nation we are seeing pockets of passionate citizens mobilizing around the causes they care about. They are exercising more than just their right to elect a candidate, but the right to continue to fight for some of the most important issues of our time. We’ve talked a lot about the “I voted, now what?” question here on Social Citizens and in discussions at the Case Foundation – but who’s taking that “now what” question and putting it into action?
I wanted to share two quick examples of citizen mobilization efforts that are currently underway – and I hope you’ll use this as a space to share stories of campaigns that are mobilizing people online to take action on the ground.
PowerShift 2009
In late February, more than 12,000 young people descended upon Washington for PowerShift ’09. This was the largest ever gathering of climate and clean energy activists in U.S. history. And on March 2nd, they took their message to Capitol Hill, braving subfreezing temperatures to rally and lobby Congress to ignite a clean and just energy future. Jake Brewer who head’s up the interactive media efforts for the Energy Action Coalition the group behind PowerShift, coordinated a remarkable online presence for the convening - but even Jake would argue that no website (even though his pulls out all the bells and whistles) could authentically capture the passion of the individuals involved at PowerShift. For more information on how you can join the Powershift efforts vist here.
ServiceNation
Another campaign finally gaining some grassroots attention is the citizen mobilization around the Serve America Act. ServiceNation has created a mighty cross sector coalition of nonprofits, corporations, and representatives from higher education, but they have just taken their message to the broader public inviting them to be "citizen co-sponsors" of the legislation that will expand opportunities for more Americans to serve their communities. In addition to signing on as a co-sponsor, Facebook Causes launched a petition tool, and ServiceNation has created a petition urging Congress to pass bold service legislation ASAP. The Petition tool is very viral, allowing signers to invite their friends and post the fact that they just signed to their status and feed. I just added my name as a supporter and was impressed with the new tool.
Thanks to the citizen activists behind both of these initiatives more people are finding ways to share their support for issues they care about. What other campaigns are gaining some viral momentum these days that we should know about?
Comments
It's wonderful to read something positive about people mobilizing for causes they believe in. There's so much grim news out there right now that it's pleasant to read something uplifiting.
Based on my understanding of what it means to be a social citizen, I think I may have a good resource for your readers. I work for UniversalGiving, an online non-profit connecting individuals to the best possible projects to donate to or volunteer with. All our partner organizations must pass through a rigorous QualityModel to appear on our site, and we don't take any cut on donations. You can check us out at www.universalgiving.org. We're a great and easy way to make a real difference, using the easy connections of the online world.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions about UniversalGiving; I'd be happy to speak with you further! Thanks again for the good thoughts on working for change.
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