The Campaign for Citizen Service Launches

The Campaign for Citizen Service Launches

The Citizens Campaign this week launched its "Campaign for Citizen Service," designed to give all Americans the opportunity to get the tools and training to become pragmatic leaders, working on solutions to leave their communities and country better than they found them.

The mission of the Citizens Campaign is to expand the leadership and problem-solving capacity of America by offering colleges, high schools and citizens proven tools for direct participation in government problem solving and citizen leadership. 

According to Citizens Campaign, the new initiative will "serve as a counter to today’s rabidly partisan, ideologically-driven, and dysfunctional top-down leadership that is failing to address our major challenges."

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The Campaign for Citizen Service is Co-Chaired by three-time Super Bowl champion Bart Oates and Spelman College Provost Dr. Pamela Scott Johnson.

“As a 3-time Super Bowl champion, I know that to be effective you have to know all the plays and have a good game plan,” said Bart Oates, an All Pro who played for the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers and is the former president of the NFL Alumni.  “The Campaign for Citizen Service will get more Americans off their couches and out onto our democracy’s playing fields; and they will be equipped to provide the public-spirited leadership that is needed to bring us together on the common ground of practical solutions.”

Dr. Pamela Scott Johnson, provost at Spelman College, said, “Voting is important, but it is not enough.  We need more Americans to get involved beyond the ballot and when doing so, treat their fellow citizens with respect, even those with whom they disagree.  That is not only the right thing to do; it is how you get things done. That is the spirit of the Campaign for Citizen Service. It is the perfect vehicle to develop a new generation of pragmatic leaders and to impress our elected officials with the public’s desire to work toward practical solutions.”

About Citizen Service 

According to Citizens Campaign, Americans will be enlisted in the Citizen Service for training that "prepares citizens to take on readily accessible, non-elected leadership roles in their own communities."

Employing this training, citizens have already gained adoption of hundreds of local laws.

The Citizen Service empowers citizens to make a difference ‘beyond the ballot,’ educating people about historic new laws that give citizens the right to access the same information that was once only available to elected officials.  

Participants also learn how to use search engines to find successful solutions already working in communities similar to their own.  They are taught best practices for advancing their own solutions within the major decision-making bodies of the city and to share their solutions with cities across the nation

The Campaign for Citizen Service is rising up from a solid foundation - from citizen leadership training bases already underway or committed to at more than 40 Colleges around the nation to partnerships with major corporations like Prudential and colleges like Rutgers University as well as organizations such as the NFL Alumni, Partners in Democracy and Campus Compact.

The Citizen Service was created by The Citizens Campaign, a community of problem-solvers dedicated to adding a citizen-driven dimension to our country’s leadership capacity and restoring service, civility, and pragmatism to America’s political culture.  For more information, visit http://www.thecitizenscampaign.org.