“U.S. Civics for Everyone” is a local Los Angeles community-based project focused on sharing education about the ways in which federal, state and municipal government works in the United States. The project is both remedial – given high rates of “civic illiteracy” in the U.S. – and also focused on systems change, with a strong emphasis on developing individual and collective relationships to civic participation.[1] Our curriculum includes modules on historical foundations of governance in the United States, the executive branch, the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, state and municipal governance, elections, and a range of sub-topics, including but not limited to gerrymandering, census data, lobbying, legislative tracking, and tools for grassroots organizing. Our curriculum can be adapted to single-event programs with recommendations for self-study, or encapsulated in a 6-week course (9 hours of curriculum in total). In addition, we are glad to offer issue or population focused versions of our curriculum, such as “Healthcare and U.S. Civics”, “U.S. Civics for Community Organizers”, “Disability and U.S. Civics”, or targeted curriculum linked to identity, such as “U.S. Civics for LGBTQ communities”, “U.S. Civics for South Asians”, “U.S. Civics for Jews”, or “U.S. Civics for Black Folks”.
Across all of the issues and priorities Repair engages, we recognize that developing community knowledge about government and politics is a vital component of social change.
[1] For related discussion of the problem of “civic illiteracy”, see Matthew Shaw, “Civic Illiteracy in America”, Harvard Political Review, May 15, 2017, available at: http://harvardpolitics.com/culture/civic-illiteracy-in-america/