CIRCLE Update June 2010

Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication, is a new policy paper by CIRCLE Director, Peter Levine. It was released on June 10, 2011 in Chicago at a high-level roundtable discussion. The report calls on community and elected leaders to adopt sensible strategies to strengthen civic communication and citizen engagement. The paper was commissioned by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is the sixth in a series of white papers aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The strategies posed in the report include reforming existing federal, state and local programs and institutions that could make significant contributions to the information environment and health of local communities through a Civic Information Corps; engaging young people in building the information and communication capacity of their communities; realigning incentives in higher education to turn these institutions into local information hubs; investing in public deliberations; and mapping the civic networks that exist in communities. To learn more or to download the report, click here. See also Peter Levine’s Huffington Post/Chicago article on how a youth media corps could work in that city. New Census Data Confirm African American and Asian Youth Increased Their Turnout Rates in 2010 Midterms Newly released Census data allow us to make official estimates of turnout for the 2010 election, and we find that approximately 24% of young people (ages 18-29) voted that year. While turnout declined slightly between 2006 and 2010, youth turnout remained similar to past midterm elections and tracks a similar decline in adult turnout. In 2010, as in 2008, young African Americans led the way in youth voter turnout. Young African Americans voted at a rate of 27.5% compared to 24.9% of young Whites, 17.6% of young Latinos and 17.7% of young Asian Americans. Turnout among White youth declined more than that of any other race/ethnicity between 2006 and 2010. To learn more, click here. CIRCLE’s Quarterly Publication, Around the CIRCLE, is Available Online Download the latest edition of CIRCLE’s quarterly publication, Around the CIRCLE, from here. This issue includes the following articles: The Internet’s Role in Making Engaged Citizens New CIRCLE Fact Sheet Shows Youth Volunteering Rates on Decline After 2005 Peak The Importance of Civic Culture: Comparing Miami and Minneapolis-St.Paul New Reports on the Civic Health of PA, MD, NY, OK, IL, and Chicago Show Age Gaps in Civic Engagement Do Interactions with the Criminal Justice System have Civic Effects? State Civic Health Reports are Uncovering Inequality and Pushing Conversations About Community Involvement If you would like to subscribe to our Around the CIRCLE publication, please click here.

Check out our new Blog! You ask, we answer! CIRCLE receives 100s of requests for data analysis each year from practitioners, members of the press, policy makers, etc. These questions help us to focus our research on relevant topics and give us opportunities to write blog posts. Each week, CIRCLE will post a blog entry to our Web site with data and analysis generated from a question posed to us from the field. Blog posts to date have focused on topics such as youth unemployment and civic engagement, the role of young African American college voters in the 2008 and 2010 elections, surprising results from the NAEP civics assessment, etc. Please visit www.civicyouth.org to view our latest posting. And, please help us spread the word. Posts can be shared on facebook and twitter.

© 2010 CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)

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