Twenty NCLR AmeriCorps members and ten program directors participated in a one-day civic engagement “Train the Trainer” (TOT) workshop on July 16 as part of the NCLR Annual Conference. The training, entitled “A Roadmap to Civic Engagement,” begins a year-long initiative designed to educate NCLR AmeriCorps members and youth in their communities about civic engagement. The “Roadmap” training underscored the importance of serving and working cooperatively in their communities through real-life experiences.

Larry Fletch conducted the training and provided the “Roadmap” training materials. Mr. Fletch is the service learning program coordinator at Service Learning Northwest. His training emphasized to that civic engagement stretches far beyond voting, and that even those under 18 years old can be active in their local and state governments. Mr. Fletch also explained how service projects can serve as civics lessons.

AmeriCorps members who participated in the TOT workshop will now be responsible for replicating the training twice in their sites: once for their fellow AmeriCorps members and once for a group of youth in their local communities. Program directors who attended the TOT workshop with their AmeriCorps members will help members develop service projects that incorporate the themes of service learning and civic engagement. AmeriCorps members will then write mini-proposals to the NCLR AmeriCorps programs to request funding for these service projects. The NCLR Civic Engagement initiative will also utilize a new online community, which allows participants to update each other on the progress of their projects and view the project schedule and deadlines. NCLR AmeriCorps will select outstanding project models and invite them to present their experiences at the 2006 NCLR Annual Conference.

For more information on the NCLR Civic Engagement initiative please contact Gerry Schafer, NCLR AmeriCorps National Program Director, via email at gschafer@nclr.org.