Topic 2: Improving your community through civic engagement

SDCE_clowdWithin this topic learners are introduced to some best practice examples taken from the case studies. Learners should be able to identify what made these projects work, and why they would be beneficial to a community.

 

SDCE2-2The DCE Guide presents many positive benefits to students partaking in an DCE project in order to improve their communities through civic engagement. 

This positive benefits to students include:

  • practicing and gaining experience in skills relevant to a career;
  • building strong relationships;
  • having great experiences and helping small community projects to become a succes.

 

Three ways to improve your community through civic engagement:

1.    Support community-based organizations

How?:

  • Pick an issue that you are passionate about and that you want to address.

  • Then become an activist by supporting community- based organizations.

  • And support small organizations that have goals of improving communities.

 

 2.     Attend local city council meetings.

This is an insightful way

  • to gain insights and initial experience;

  • to construct your network;

  • meet like minded people who may  share your ambition to develop a solutions-based project based on  Digital Civic Engagement.

 

3.     Support Local Businesses

By supporting local businesses, you are helping:

  •  your local community to become economically stronger;
  •  local businesses (family owned), and workers and local suppliers.

By communicating with local businesses you are developing relationships and identifying what needs they have.

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The author is solely responsible for this publication (communication) and the Commission accepts no responsibility for any use may be made of the information contained therein.