The Citizen Service: Partnering for Civic Engagement and Democracy

Barbara McCuen Jones:
At a time when trust in institutions is strained and civic participation often feels out of reach, a growing effort is underway to reimagine how Americans engage in public life. The Citizen Service is advancing a national civic education model rooted in pragmatic, no-blame, community-based problem solving, designed to equip people not just to understand democracy, but to actively participate in strengthening it. Today, we’re talking with John Silvanus Wilson, president of the Citizens Service, and a former president of Morehouse College, and Rashawn Davis, who serves as a senior advisor to the Citizen Service, about their approach and tools to help higher education institutions advance their civic mission, while also preparing their students with practical leadership skills.

Wilson and Davis discuss how this work is uniquely positioned to cultivate the kind of educated, empowered, and engaged citizenry our democracy requires. I’m Barbara McCuen Jones, AGB Senior Director of Digital Solutions, and I’m honored to speak with them today. Let’s get started. John, could you please tell our listeners what the main goals of the Citizens Service are and why its work is particularly relevant for colleges, universities, and their governing boards today. If your vision is realized, what difference would it make in our nation’s politics and governance?

John Silvanus Wilson:
Well, thank you, Barbara. And first, I just want to thank you and AGB for having us on. I’m a big fan of AGB. I really benefited from AGB as the authority on governance in this country in higher education. I benefited from them when I was president of Morehouse College, and I’ve also written a couple of articles for Trusteeship Magazine, The Publication of AGB. So thank you for having us on. The Citizen Service is essentially a national civic education curriculum for all Americans. At its heart, it is pragmatic, no-blame, community-based problem solving. But if you widen the aperture of the lens, more broadly, the Citizen Service is a defacto answer to John Dewey’s 1916 mandate. He said democracy must be born and new every generation and education is its midwife. This is the unfinished business of American education and the Citizen Service is designed to take care of that unfinished business.

We believe the American higher education sector is where the fruits of America’s diversity can and must be harvested. And so to that end, we envision community colleges and HBCUs and MSIs as the initial problem solving hubs, MSIs being minority serving institutions. But our vision is to eventually engage all of American higher education in this nonpartisan, non-ideological solution focused training, both on and off campus. We believe that’s the best way to build trust in America again, and that’s how you’re going to see the results of what we’re doing.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
And there’s been a lot of talk in this moment and time about our democracy being under threat. Is this effort designed to address those threats or is it something broader? And how can colleges and universities play a constructive role in strengthening civic engagement and democratic participation?

John Silvanus Wilson:
Yeah, that’s a great question. I don’t think there’s much debate about the fact that we face a poly crisis right now in this country, if not in the world. There is widespread division and distrust and disinformation and conflict and hate. We believe the best way to address any and all threats to democracy is an educated, empowered and engaged citizenry. If you create an educated, empowered and engaged citizenry, we believe that we’ll correct and get the democracy going in the right direction. In our view, one of the key ways to do that is to work with higher education. There are 20 million college students. Most of those students are attending college within 17 miles of their home. As a matter of fact, 70% of all college students, 20 million, attend college within 50 miles of their home. And community colleges enroll half of the students in American higher education.

So if you just think about those data right there, by having a theory that engages people or educates people to engage in their local community, you have a pretty good shot at being effective working with higher education since most people are nearby their community as they’re receiving what higher education has to offer. So we’re going to engage locally in hometowns, getting millions of people, hopefully, ideally pursuing pragmatic nonpartisan solutions that are evidence-based, budget neutral, and that benefit the community and not just special interests. So this is all about civic engagement. We believe it happens locally first, and with the Citizen Service, we believe we can convert people from being bystanders to being upstanders or from being disengaged to being fully empowered. That’s the goal and we’re confident we can reach it.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
Rashawn, how is the Citizen Service getting students engaged with you?

Rashawn Davis:
Yeah. Well, thanks so much, Barbara, for having us, and thank you to the Association of Governing Boards for inviting John and I to be on today. I want to work backwards from your question. I think for us, and to echo some of the pieces that John was saying, what we see when we talk to higher ed leaders is really two things. The first is so many higher ed leaders are focused on the civic mission of their institutions, and we also see higher ed leaders very concerned about making sure that students have career development opportunities and that they have a pathway to families sustaining wages. And what we see really with the work that we are doing at the Citizen Service is we see an opportunity for higher ed institutions to grow their civic mission by making sure that students are engaged, that students understand no-blame problem solving, that they understand how government decision making works.

And they also understand that the skills that they learn through the Citizen Service have ramifications beyond just knowing how government decision making is made, that they’re really valuable on the open market as well. And so for higher ed institutions across the country, including the dozens that we already engage with, we have multiple different on ramps, whether it’s students engaging with our online course where students have several hours of self-paced training where they can learn all about the Citizen Service methodology, including the no-blame problem solving that John was referring to. There are also other institutions where we go more deep and we’re really excited to do that, whether that’s seeing our work and curriculum embedded in the learnings of institutions, whether that’s some other option. I think part of what we get really excited about and part of what makes our work interesting is that it is bespoke.

We do have many on ramps, but we know every institution is at a different place in their civic mission and we like to meet institutions where they are. And so we’re really grateful and we see it as a core component for us to be able to just be bespoke for what the institution’s needs are. But I will say to your question that the vast majority of young people that engage with the Citizen Service do so initially through our online training program.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
And how would you say that this course and your training program and these experiences, how would they complement the institutional goals around student success and civic learning?

Rashawn Davis:

When I talk to higher ed leaders, civic mission and career development are two of the top issues top of mind. And we know that, as John said, higher ed institutions are hubs for their cities, for their towns, for the communities that they’re anchored in. And so their civic mission is of prime importance, and it’s not enough for institutions to talk about their civic mission. It has to be something that is lived. And so we see the work that we do as being another tool and a toolkit of institutions as they grow their civic mission. We are equipping students, and in some institutions we’ve grown beyond students to equipping faculty, equipping general staff members, anyone who might want to take this course because we really believe in not only just educating folks across higher ed, but we also believe in equipping folks with these skills and the abilities to get to solutions, to have difficult conversations, and to get to problem solving.

And I’ll also say this, because this is an area I’m particularly interested in, is we really do believe that growing your civic skillset has value, even beyond just knowing what’s happening in your community and being able to participate in it. And so we’re excited to keep growing and keep studying how this has implications for workforce capabilities of students, how students might be able to credential some of this stuff and put this on their resume. And we know that whether you’re operating a private business or a nonprofit, having a staff member or an employee who goes through our training, who has the skillset to solve problems, to engage in no-blame problem solving and to be a leader is valuable no matter what you’re doing. And so that’s what we’re really excited about. That’s how we see students using our resources. And that’s why we think, as John said, we really have something that can benefit higher ed across the country.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
And John had mentioned how many students, the percentage of students that go on to higher education within their community or one of the very small radius of where they’re from. And you just mentioned some accessible leadership roles in the community. Can you give us a couple of examples?

Rashawn Davis:
And what I’ll say is the obvious ones are you have appointed boards, you have commissions that exist in virtually every town and municipality across the country. But I think the larger piece here that I think is really important for folks to know is that there are so many local government roles and municipalities across the country. It’s one of the most employable fields out here. And what we see ourself as doing, and you heard me talk a little bit about the credentialing and workforce readiness, is preparing the next generation of citizen leaders to step into these local government positions and apply the skillsets that they’ve learned through our programming and resources and really make impact in their community. And so in a lot of ways, that’s commissions and boards. But as you know, Barbara and as you know, John, there are many paid positions in local and county government that often go unfilled because many people don’t even know that they exist, that they are options for young people who are interested in pursuing civic life as a profession.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
And you’ve both mentioned no-blame problem solving. What do you mean by it and why do you think it’s important and how can it help leaders navigate contentious issues on campus, in the boardroom or in communities? What does that look like in practice? John?

John Silvanus Wilson:
I want to confess that the no-blame part of this was initially very hard for me because in contrast to democracy today, the forces that are seemingly for tyranny and autocracy and aristocracy, it just seemed to me those forces have been shamelessly clear for a while now. And so what appeared to me to be some culprits of our stalk progress seem to be staring us in the face, but I’ve grown since I had those stark viewpoints about the whole thing. They’re still true, but the way I see them is now different. We are about to celebrate our 250th year of what has been a journey toward democracy in this country. So we’re celebrating 250 years of a journey toward democracy. I think that very few people in this country today would argue that we all agree on the direction of progress. If one half of America thinks progress is to the north, roughly another half, and maybe not quite a half, might argue that it’s to the south.

And so you have this tomato-tomato schizophrenia thing going on here in America, and we’ve had it for a while. There have been debates about the direction of progress, and I think it’s pretty clear we are not yet a perfect union. So to me, if we want to reach the perfection that is mandated in our founding documents, since we admit that we haven’t reached it yet, we still have some growing to do. So de facto, in my view, progress is ahead and not going backwards. So that’s just my view. Now, no-blame replaces finger pointing with what might be called a pragmatic search for cost-effective solutions that appeal to and benefit the whole community, not just specific special interests. Improving one’s whole community is a public service. Advancing only special interests is more splintering, so it’s different. No-blame is about getting people to elevate, so we can all jointly pursue and realize a true American democracy for all. And I really think, Barbara, that no-blame is born of Dr. King. I’m a Morehouse graduate. I was president of Morehouse and I spent plenty of time in Martin Luther King Chapel.

Rashawn knows Dr. King’s history, we all do. And basically what made him so effective, he was essentially a no-blame leader. He found a way to appeal to the hearts and minds and the better angels of America. And he found a language that emphasizes our common ground. And that’s what no-blame is designed to do. It’s designed to emphasize our common ground to awaken people, no matter their background, to what the idea of America is. This whole notion of having a dream that one day we will realize the equality imperative that sits at the foundation of our founding documents. And I believe that’s true. In order to do that, we have to get rid of a lot of tribalism that we still have in this country and in this world. And no-blame is pursuant to that. It is a deeply humane ethic that finds the common ground between human beings. And I’ve come to embrace it and to be an advocate for it because I believe it is the only way we’re going to emerge from the difficult place that we’re in right now.

Rashawn Davis:
And if I could just echo, John, because I think you’ve put it so well. Barbara, to your original question, when we talk about America’s 250th, when we talk about the civic mission of higher ed, when we talk about the state of democracy, I think one of the most glaring pieces, and this has been a focus of my work over the past few years, is that you have the vast majority of young people who do not participate in democracy. And when I’ve gone to higher ed institutions, whether they be community colleges, whether they be selective universities, the feedback I get from young people tends to be very similar. It tends to be, “I’m interested, but how do I get involved? I don’t feel I’m 100% this. I don’t feel I’m 100% that. I don’t agree.” And so I think young people in particular are looking for ways to engage. But to John’s point about tribalism, unfortunately, so much of our civic participation has been mired in this idea that you are either A or you are either B.

And I think to John’s point, what we are offering in this no-blame approach is an independent nonpartisan methodology that says, “You have an opportunity to engage in our democracy. You have a right to engage in our democracy and not be pushed into one label or another.” And so I think part of the most exciting pieces of this for me is just providing another alternative, another route to engagement for young people who don’t see themselves in one way or another, or who may just say, “I feel like I’m a mixed bag and I still want to participate, but I just don’t know how.” So I’m excited to see this continue to be an on ramp as we roll out to other higher ed institutions. And then the other thing I want to echo that John said so well is quite frankly, when I talk to young people, the second piece of feedback I get a lot is young people want to know, will I be able to buy a house one day? Will I be able to do this? Will I be able to do that?

And to me, what that signals is that young people are interested in solutions. They are less interested in the how and who’s right and who’s wrong, and they’re more interested in making sure that when they graduate, they’ll have a job that can sustain them and their families, that they’ll be able to buy a home one day, that they’ll be able to at least reach for their dreams. And so again, I think what we are offering here is a focus on those solutions. This is how we get to the solutions that people want. This is an on ramp to participation that isn’t mired in ideology or this side or that side. So it’s really exciting. I’m really excited to see young people latch onto this and engage. And I think we’re all very excited for the future of the Citizen Service and the work ahead.

John Silvanus Wilson:
Let me just comment on that because I think Rashawn is very wise in pointing to the college environment as a locust for the change we see and he pointed to other educational environments. Just imagine that we believe the Citizen Service has the power to elevate campus cultures too, so that they are a microcosm of the democracy we want to see. And if we can use the Citizen Service, these techniques that we are advocating to begin to elevate the campus culture, then we think we have a better shot at people being in that mode when they leave campus and influencing society as well.

So that microcosm idea, we work locally, we work with these environments that are closed environments being a campus community, and if they learn how to be better citizens, how to be civically engaged, then we have a better shot at elevating the overall American culture, losing the tribalism and becoming true Americans where all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds embrace the idea of America, which is an elevated idea that all humanity is one grounded in the notion that we’re all created equal. It’s a beautiful thing. We just need to realize it.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
I’m curious, Rashawn, based on John’s response a little while ago, saying how at first he wasn’t open to the no-blame approach and he had to work his way through it. Rashawn, when you’re on campuses meeting with students and things are so polarized, what kinds of reactions are you getting to the no-blame approach?

Rashawn Davis:
So what I would say is we’ve been expanding and so that is indication that this is going well. We have thousands of students at this point who have gone through our course. In several cities, we operate something called the Civic Trust, which often includes young people from local communities, often college students who want to take it a step further and get involved and put their hands in and interact with other community members to talk about solutions. And so I’ll say the reaction has been great. In any college campuses, you’re going to get young people who have strong opinions one way or another. That’s the reality of the world and even beyond college campuses, that’s the state of the nation.

But again, I think where I focus on, and I think often what gets lost in the conversation is quite frankly, the vast majority of Americans are not participating in civic life full stop. And that extends to college campuses, that extends to virtually every community in this country. And so we have a silent majority that doesn’t feel heard, that doesn’t quite know how to get involved. And in my experience, particularly with young people, is that there is a desire to get involved. But many of the young people I talk to, again, feel like my only avenue is option A or option B, and I don’t necessarily identify either way, so I should just stay out of it. And I think what we are saying is, “Hey, if you’re option A, if you’re option B, great.” But if you find yourself somewhere in the middle, if you find yourself just curious and not quite sure yet where you want to go, here’s an entryway into civic life and civic participation.

We don’t push young people, we don’t push anybody to one way or another. What we do is explain that as a citizen, you have a core role in the decision making of your government, that there are ways to be involved, that there are ways to push for solutions that are nonpartisan, that are non-ideological. And what folks tend to do after that is totally up to them. But I think part of what we are really excited to do is to provide that alternative on ramp for young people who want to get involved, but just don’t know how and don’t necessarily feel inclined to use the on ramp of the dichotomy that we have existing today.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
For board members, presidents, or other senior leaders who are interested in learning more, what does a partnership with a Citizen Service look like and how can institutions begin exploring it?

Rashawn Davis:
We encourage all folks to go to thecitizenservice.org, which is our website and also the hub of all things Citizen Service. We pride ourselves on being able to build bespoke relationships with institutions. You heard John say we have a portfolio where we work with community colleges, we work with regional schools, we work with MSIs, HBCUs, four-year universities. What we say is if you’re an institutional leader and you want to advance your civic mission, this is what the Citizen Service was built for. And so we ask that you reach out to us. There are multiple ways. We have a phone number, we have an email, we have social media links that you can find on the citizenservice.org, and you reach out to us. And we have an incredible team of folks who build these relationships and we’ll see what the landscape is and how we can use our resources to help you move that sitting mission forward.

John Silvanus Wilson:
Yeah, I would only add, I mean, Rashawn, it’s hard to add to that because you really covered the terrain. I think we are poised now because of the partnerships that we have been forming to really get into America’s civic bloodstream. And I think it will be inevitable that more and more people will hear about this because I believe, and we believe that this is a very, very effective way to upgrade the civic engagement in this country. And I think most people, no matter what your political affiliations are, most people would agree that we really want people who are currently disengaged, and that is most Americans, to lean into the idea of America. And even if there are differences on what that is, we believe that the idea of engaging in a conversation about it and engaging in civic service will get people to move toward common ground inevitably. And that’s a process that we’re believing in as we stand this Citizen Service up around the country. That is what the Citizen Service is all about, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Barbara McCuen Jones:
Thank you, John and Rashawn. This is important and exciting work and we’re grateful to you and The Citizen Service for sharing your time and insights with us today. For more information on how your board and institution can work with the Citizen Service, please visit thecitizenservice.org.