Citizen Leaders

Across the cities and towns of the United States many thousands of citizens are regularly and actively engaged in community-based giving and serving–both individually and through civic associations, business groups, churches and nonprofit organizations. The collective activity of these "citizen leaders" is vital to community health and to the greater good of our national life. But the work they do is also deceptively complex. Venturing into the public sphere, citizens confront difficult choices about how best to serve and lead well, how to do good and not harm. How can we help these leaders choose wisely? How can they come to know and understand others who also give and serve at a deeper level, enabling stronger common effort?

Civic reflection offers groups of citizen-leaders an enjoyable but serious way to meet and talk with one another about the complex character of their leadership and to build stronger relationships across differences. These conversations may bring together newer and veteran citizen-leaders within a community. They may help to connect persons of similar or different background or heritage who can begin to articulate and reflect upon their civic choices and commitments. The group may be convened by a chamber of commerce, civic association, church, or neighborhood organization. The possibilities are numerous. In each case a program of civic reflection can help to honor citizen-leadership, even as it nurtures deeper understanding of the choices and commitments that such leadership entails.

Below is a sampling of civic reflection programs organized for citizen leaders:

Civic Reflections at City Hall bring together citizens of Valparaiso, Indiana, from all sectors of the community, to reflect on what it means to be a Valparaisian. The group is diverse, made up of those who have lived their entire lives in "Valpo" to the most recent arrivals; each person brings different experiences, both positive and negative, of being a resident of this particular town. The group meets once a month, from January-June, 2008, to discuss short readings that provoke questions like: How do we meet or work together as neighbors? How do we connect across race and other differences? How do we create change? How do we encourage unity? The goal of the series is to have a conversation about what is important, not just what is urgent, to take the opportunity to explore the hopes, values and aspirations residents have for the community.

Rotary 14: Reflective Philanthropy is a program of Rotary #14 in Lincoln, Nebraska, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious Rotary clubs. In the fall the club's new members are invited to participate in a four-part program in which they share a meal and explore questions about giving through a discussion of short readings from The Perfect Gift. During the winter more senior members are invited to participate in a similar program as part of a "Fireside Chat" series. More than 80% of members report that civic reflection has strengthened their commitment to service, in Rotary and beyond. Participant comments are included with the reading list.

Changing Leaders, Leading Change: A Conversation with Civic Leaders in Valparaiso For a period of six months, the Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce in Indiana, brought together a cross-section of business, social services and religious leaders for dinner and conversation about selected readings and films. The first session of this program was held on September 12, 2001. The suddenly changed American and global landscape after 9-11 provided this group with a dramatic and immediate context for very serious and meaningful discussion about leadership and change in their own community.

The Bangor Rotary Project. In 2003, the Maine Humanities Council and the Bangor, Maine Rotary Club launched the council's Thoughtful Giving project. A group of 15 Rotarians met monthly over a light meal followed by conversation about short readings selected from The Perfect Gift. Members ranged across a number of professions, including nonprofit executives, a carpenter, a minister, a property manager, and operators of a medical facility. Participants discussed such questions as Why give? What is a good gift? What are the limits of giving? and Can giving be taught? and explored ways in which individual acts of giving have shaped American civil society.

The St. Louis Women Leaders Group. In St. Louis, Missouri, a varied group of women leaders within the nonprofit community–trustees, staff and donors–used civic reflection as an opportunity to explore key questions related to giving and leadership in their community. They met bi-weekly for dinner and conversation about questions such as What are the barriers to giving? How do/can we overcome them? What are my expectations of those to whom I give? What is the role of civic engagement in philanthropy and social change? Is it changing? Participants reported that their experiences in the program helped them think in new and fruitful ways about the organizations they serve and about their personal philanthropic decision-making.

Life and Leadership in Miller In this seminar, a group of 15 citizen-leaders gathered monthly for a six-session conversation in the racially, ethnically and economically diverse Miller neighborhood of Gary, Indiana–a neighborhood which is at a turning point in its relationship to its own city (i.e., turning toward or away from Gary). The participants were Miller citizen-leaders who share a love for their community but differ, perhaps, in their vision of the "beloved community." The facilitators for this seminar developed a dynamic conversation agenda that incorporated poetry, prose, film and the participants' own photography as texts for discussion.

Civics and the Literary Arts: Writing for the Public Good brought together a group of public mental health consumers and advocates in southeastern Connecticut who share a commitment to the craft of writing. Participants pondered questions such as, What are we contributing to our communities through our writing? What and who enables us to do the work we do? What responsibilities accompany our freedoms? The readings and conversations gave these participants an opportunity to consider how their very private work of writing affects others and to explore responsibilities that may accompany that work for service to their neighbors and neighborhoods.