Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Civics Initiative newsletter. We have given it a temporary name, but want to hear suggestions from you, the stakeholders, for a more appropriate permanent name. Send us your ideas. Think 21st century.

The Initiative officially launched at the October 9-10, 2013, “Closing the Gap” workshop at St. Petersburg College Seminole.  We are up and running, ready to engage with the stakeholders at all 28 members of the Florida College System. Those who attended the workshop last fall are familiar with the Initiative and the issues on the agenda. For those who did not attend, please check the Background/Mission tab to catch up on what the project is about.

Welcome to the Civics Initiative website. This is your website, maintained by the Institute to connect you, the stakeholders in Civics Education, with one another and with the resources available to help achieve our shared mission of closing the gap in civics knowledge among the current and future generations of students in the Florida College System.

We want to hear from you, especially about your Best Practices and ideas for civics-related projects you are considering for Fall 2014. To join the conversation, go to the Blog tab. By clicking Submit a Post you are able to input your Best Practice or Best Idea. The Institute staff will distill the best and post them on a regular basis. The purpose of this site is to share information so we aren’t individually reinventing the wheel. It a civics project worked well for you, perhaps it can be adapted by many others. We want this to be a very collaborative site with useful content to help FCS be a model of civics engagement.

David Klement, Executive Director
Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions