The Civic Engagement and Leadership Development program (CELD), CUNY’s popular civic leadership program is now open for registration, with Saturday morning sessions starting on February 2, 2019.

The program is sponsored and hosted by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and its Murphy Institute, which has educated tens of thousands of New Yorkers about the challenges and possibilities confronting organized labor and working-class communities for over 30 years.

Each CELD session will feature CUNY faculty and veteran practitioners with years of experience and expertise in civic leadership, electoral politics, the history of mass movements, and policymaking at the local, state and national levels of government.  Class descriptions are below.

Participants completing at least 7 of the 8 sessions will receive a certificate of completion.  All participants will join the growing network of CELD alumni, and be invited to future civic leadership events and gatherings.

The Registration Deadline is January 18, 2019.  Questions?  Email us at events@slu.cuny.edu.

REGISTER NOW:  http://bit.ly/CELDS19

SAT. FEBRUARY 2, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 1: Civic Engagement in this Moment: Concepts, Context, and Content

This is session is an overview of the scope, procedures, requirements, and expectations of the course. It will also provide a conceptual framework for understanding the contemporary role of civic engagement plays in expanding participation in the democratic process as well as survey critical civic engagement challenges.

SAT. FEBRUARY 9, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 2:   Pivotal Movements at Pivotal Moments in U.S. History

This session utilizes pivotal movements that emerged at pivotal moments in U.S. history to illuminate uniquely innovative ways and means activists utilized to exercise the First Amendment “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” to successfully influence public policy, deepen as well as broaden democracy, and transform governance.

 

 

SAT. FEBRUARY 16, 2019 — 10am-12pm

***  PRESIDENT’S WEEKEND: CUNY CLOSED — NO CLASS  ***

SAT. FEBRUARY 23, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 3: Utilizing Power Mapping

Power mapping is both a theoretical and a practical tool that community organizations, civic movements, issue coalitions, and unions use to understand and to positively influence how political power and policymaking authority is wielded within specific jurisdictions. Students will be mentored in power mapping and participate in an exercise in which they use this tool to design ways of effectively engaging “the powers that be.”

SAT. MARCH 2, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 4: Navigating Progressive Priorities Through the Budget Process

Existing programs require continuous funding. New programs require new appropriations. The budget process is the central institutional vehicle governments use to decide “who gets what, and how much.” This session will review the ways in which unions, civic movements, and community coalitions navigate their priorities through the New York City and New York State budget processes, as well as examine how civic activists utilize participatory budgeting to fund community priorities through grassroots democratic civic decision-making now that voters approved citywide participatory budgeting.

SAT. MARCH 9, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 5: Advocacy & Organizing in Electoral & Non-Electoral Contexts

This session surveys a range of advocacy and organizing skills, techniques, and strategies issue-based coalitions utilize on an on-going basis as well as during election cycles. This session will also examine how engaging these interconnected contexts can strengthen civic engagement and build unity among diverse constituencies. Students will also design approaches that community-based organizations, civic coalitions, and unions can undertake in electoral and non-electoral contexts.

SAT. MARCH 16, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 6: Engaging Political Parties in the Policymaking Process

Civic engagement involves complex challenges related to engaging the political process — particularly now that Democrats are in the majority in the House of Representatives and the New York State Senate. Engaging the political process requires interacting with political parties. What if the candidate(s) your union, community organization, or issue coalition supported wins? What if that election also results in this candidate’s party keeping or gaining control of the legislative or the executive branch? What if the candidate(s) your union, community organization, or issue coalition opposed wins? What if his or her party maintains or regains control of the legislative or executive branch? This session focuses on the challenges leaders and activists face in responding to disparate outcomes; new political situations; engage political parties in the policymaking process; and influence the policy priorities and staff appointments of elected officials.

SAT. MARCH 23, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 7: Thinking Big! — A Case Study of an Innovative Approaches to Empowering Communities

The most successful civic engagement movements of the past and present are characterized by innovative strategies — above all, innovative thinking — that broke with past patterns and practices. This session reviews how a contemporary civic engagement initiative uses innovative thinking and approaches to the rules, procedures, mechanics, pressure points, lobbying, institutional participants, and civic involvement to re-conceptualize labor-community coalition-building and ultimate goals, and in this way formulate new approaches to influencing public policymakers and mobilizing public support. Students will apply what they have learned to construct their own model for engaging the policymaking process.

SAT. MARCH 30, 2019 — 10am-12pm

Session 8: Class Dialogue: Civic Engagement Challenges in 2019 and Beyond

*** Certificate Presentation & Reception ***

This session focuses on key challenges civic engagement leaders and activists face in the aftermath of the 2018 midterm elections and the first six months of the 116th Congress in which Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives. Discussion will center on ways in which 2019 CELD students — based on what they have learned — could civic engagement initiatives should tackle overlapping local, state, and national political dynamics.