MISSISSIPPI ACTION CAMPAIGN
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ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE
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FATHERHOOD: IT’S IMPORTANT .
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Prosper Most people have an innate sense of personal responsibility and loyalty to their communities. They want to support civic obligations. They want to participate. More often than not, a case of not knowing what to do about community shortcomings is mistaken as indifference or complacency. This is magnified with youth engagement.
Call it civic engagement, public engagement, civic participation, community engagement or public participation. Engagement by whichever name you prefer is simply inspiring and calling to action those living in the community to actively participate in a range of activities to improve the Civic engagement can involve community’s current conditions and doing something as simple as future for the common good. .
volunteering or becoming active in an organization that is addressing issues you are passionate about. Other paths of engagement could be electoral participation or advocacy for those with little or no voice to speak for themselves. People involved in civic engagement are people like your neighbors, co-workers, and people you see every day. They are people like you.
ENGAGING YOUTH The civic engagement of young adults is important to the continuance of healthy communities and preservation of societal values. It is also important for personal growth and identity formation during the transition to adulthood. Young voices bring new perspective to issues that centrally affect youth and offer fresh solutions. Young people want to contribute to community. We have to create channels of opportunity for them to do so. There are numerous issues that are of interest to young people and even more ways to reach out to them. Communities can tap into this often-overlooked resource of human capital. Youth engagement is at its best when it is deployed as a strategy tailored to the needs and interests of young people, adapted to support community context, focused to measurable outcomes, and meaningful to the young people involved For ideas about how to engage young people in your community, contact the Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement at http://www.southernideabank.org/ite ms.php?id=2560
Citizens actively working with government officials to change their communities help foster a healthy society. To help form this interdependent dialogue, Mississippi Center for Justice created a curriculum for its new initiative, Mississippi Action Campaign.. The program goal is to educate groups of senior citizens about how they can influence change in their cities. Members began meeting in Greenville, Miss. on May 16 and continue to gather once each week for 9 weeks, learning a new element of the work plan each session. During these sessions, residents review all of the factors that will help them develop advocacy campaigns to address local issues. They will learn how to align with the proper allies for each campaign and how those partnerships should function. Members will also learn how to define goals for initiatives, which will allow for their work to have forward momentum. This includes identifying the correct decision maker to engage for their action and learning how to work with media outlets to utilize press to inform the public about their work. Paheadra Robinson, consumer protection director with Mississippi Center for Justice, is working alongside the seniors to guide the discussion about best practices for citizen action. “We’ve got a great group of citizens working together in this training. Empowering citizens to become stakeholders in their communities is very important in building strong and sustainable community networks,” said Robinson. – Sharon G. Morris, Mississippi Center for Justice
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June is National Homeownership Month and CPM partner the Mississippi Housing Partnership kicked the month off in the spirit of civic engagement. MHP hosted a housing fair at their offices on West Street in Jackson, MS. The fair targeted potential home buyers across the spectrum. Counselors were on site to provide information specific to low- and moderate-income families. For families facing the challenge of holding on to their present homes, information and strategies for avoiding foreclosure was available to them. Kudos to Tim Collins and his staff who created a welcoming environment for information, family fun, and food.
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Fatherhood Initiative CPM recognizes fathers as a critical component in the parenting equation. In our commitment to strengthening the family by supporting fathers we are excited to be partnered with Stepping Forward Together, Inc., an organization actively involved with non-custodial fathers and their children. Stepping Forward’s mission is the enhancement of family values through life and spiritual coaching. They believe this approach will inevitably foster healthy parent-child relationships, build stronger families, and better communities. As part of the fatherhood initiative, CPM hosted a training workshop with Halbert Sullivan, founding CEO of Fathers Support Center St. Louis.
Civic engagement is very important, especially in the times we are in. I believe that the more informed people are the better. No one feels that he has been left out. Everyone feels he has been heard. Even though the final decision may not go the way a particular person may have wanted it to, at least he knows that his opinion was considered.
91.4 Million Hours of service logged by Mississippians in service to nonprofit or community organizations.
Since its inception; FSC has served more than 8,000 fathers and their families, guiding the transition of nonparticipating father to a position of involvement in the lives of their children. We are looking forward to continued work with both organizations to help facilitate positive outcomes for fathers and communities in Mississippi
Achieving Asset-Building Goals: Saving: Starting Early By the time most young people finish college, 83% will owe an average credit card balance of $2,327*. Save For America is designed to reverse this trend by giving children regular savings experiences at an early age. The emphasis is in making school savings beneficial for students, educators, volunteers and Financial Institutions, so that children can 'learn by doing', over the long-term.
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Once a week, students go to school and make a deposit with the help of an adult volunteer. The volunteer takes the student deposits to a local bank and makes one lump sum deposit into a holding account. The next business day, through the Federal Reserve Banking System, Save For America debits the holding account and credits all the students' accounts with their deposits. Student deposits will appear on their regular bank statement.
www.prosperousmississippi.com
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/ProsperousMS FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/coalitionforaprosperousmississippi
Source: http://www.saveforamerica.org/howitworks.aspx
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JOIN US There are several ways you can work with the Coalition for a Prosperous Mississippi. There are opportunities to VOLUNTEER or PARTNER with us. Decide how you want to participate.
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Volunteer Volunteer your time and talent with one of our teams or assist with a special event or activity.
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