Designing a Bigger “We”: Civic Studies & Civic Innovation Huddle (Aug 18, 2025)
We’re designing a bigger “We.” This Huddle shows how: start with belonging, give people simple ways to join, and tie dialogue to real work that changes local conditions or innovates new civic life.
Designing a Bigger “We”: Civic Studies & Civic Innovation Huddle (Aug 18, 2025)
“All People, All Places Thriving—No Exceptions” isn’t a slogan; it’s a systems-design brief, an ethos, and a bold statement of shared purpose. It asks us to move past performative unity and actually build the stuff of a bigger “We”—easy ways to join in, practices that bridge differences, and public work that changes conditions close to home. From classrooms to congregations, city halls to service clubs, this vision treats people and professionals as co-creators, not consumers. It also points to a repeatable-at-every-level network—local hubs connected to state and national collaborators—so belonging turns into action and dialogue turns into co‑governance.
Why this Huddle Mattered
We explored how Civic Studies and citizen professionalism spread across institutions and communities, renewing a story of democracy as a way of life. The session mixed catalytic ideas (Boyte, Marri) with practical weaving across sectors (faith, higher ed, service, mediation, journalism, community development).
Quick Summary
Start with simple ways to join. Make it easy for people and groups to begin—and connect those starts to work that has visible results.
Belonging comes first. Relationships open the door; shared work cements new beliefs and skills.
Scale by repeating what works. Link local hubs → state cross‑sector networks → national learning and coordination.
Use all four strategies. Bridge, Build, Block, and Belong—each one supports the other three.
Professionals as partners. Shift from expert delivery to guiding, coaching, and co-creating with communities.
What Happened in the Huddle
We didn’t meet to admire the problem. We met to trade playbooks. Around the (virtual) room were organizers, educators, faith leaders, public innovators, and a few stubborn optimists. The opening question landed like a tuning fork: How do we turn enthusiasm into durable civic capacity?
Early on, someone named the gap we all feel: lots of people want to work across differences, but clear, trusted opportunities are hard to find. Heads nodded. That set the tone for a practical session—less theory, more “what do we build next?”
“If we can get the right ways to start and move between efforts, we don’t need to educate people one at a time. We create chances to move through the ecosystem—so anyone in one program can easily connect to the next.”
Washington State shared a vivid picture of what that looks like on the ground. Start with potlucks and story circles. Listen until a shared question shows up—How can we help each other? Then take the next right step together. The magic wasn’t a fancy curriculum; it was relationship-first organizing that quickly shifted into co‑creation.
“We brought people together and listened until the question surfaced: ‘How can we help each other? What can we build together?’ The point is connection—then giving people the tools to co‑create.”
Across the hour, two anchors kept resurfacing:
Dialogue tied to consequences. Conversation matters most when it leads to work with real stakes—fixing a park, reimagining a school policy, running a neighborhood listening drive.
Group‑to‑group organizing. People show up as members of groups—congregations, clubs, classes, unions, teams. Design for groups to meet, deliberate, and act as groups, instead of treating everyone as a solo project.
“Most folks take cues from the groups they’re part of. We’ve got to move beyond individual skill-building to group‑to‑group interaction—deliberation and action between groups.”
Another simple but powerful reframing landed too: don’t recruit—energize. People aren’t prospects; they’re partners. Name the sparks that already exist and add oxygen.
“Don’t treat people as prospects for our thing. Energize the sparks already present—name what’s working locally and build from there.”
Three Through‑Lines
1) From deliberation to co‑creation (public work)
Add work with consequence to discussion. Treat careers and campuses as civic sites. Shift professionals from experts on top to coaches, lifting volunteers as co‑leaders. Translate dialogue into doing.
2) Belonging through purpose, agency, and on‑ramps
People join where they can matter. Build on‑ramps for first contact, lanes for learning/practice, and worksites for co‑created fixes. Belonging grows when momentum feels winnable and shared.
3) Many doors into the same house (group‑to‑group bridges)
Start with groups as groups—faith networks, service clubs, cultural orgs, campuses. Convene bundles, not just individuals. Bridge groups → share skills → co‑create projects.
Moments to Remember
Civic action spotlight: A shift toward citizen‑led civic action (e.g., Braver Angels) aligning with National Conference on Citizenship visibility.
Ball State’s push: Faculty cohort and statewide strategy to embed civic learning—schools as the last universal civic space.
Civic hubs as scaffolding: Repeatable arc from first contact to co‑creation (e.g., Skagit County).
Supply‑side challenge: High appetite for purpose; too few visible opportunities—solve the supply problem with on‑ramps and a shared signal board.
Frameworks at a Glance
Thriving Together, Vital Conditions, and Belonging & Civic Muscle
Thriving Together is the north star: all people and all places thriving—no exceptions. It orients strategy toward long‑term investment and shared prosperity.
Vital Conditions are the durable basics every community needs for people to flourish—humane housing, meaningful work and wealth, lifelong learning, reliable transportation and mobility, a healthy natural world, safe neighborhoods, and more.
Belonging & Civic Muscle are the engine room: the skills, relationships, norms, and power with one another that let people shape their future. The field note that keeps proving true: belonging comes before belief.
Seven Elements of Civic Life (a practical playbook)
Trust • Learning • Building • Aspirations • Truth • Working & Working Out • Reinvention
Use these seven elements as a dashboard. They help residents, institutions, and funders see where things are strong, where they’re thin, and what to try next—from early trust-building to joint work and continuous adaptation.
The 4 B’s of Generative Engagement
Bridge • Build • Block • Belong
A balanced response to a stressed democracy:
Bridge across differences with curiosity and skill.
Build civic infrastructure and real chances to act.
Block anti‑democratic harms and disinformation.
Belong by growing a larger We where dignity and agency are non‑negotiable.
Design rule: let each “B” strengthen the other three so you don’t over‑index on just one.
What It Looked Like (Story Beats)
Citizen professionalism, not expert‑only delivery. Stories from campus and community showed professionals acting as guides—coaching inquiry, facilitating deliberation, and opening doors to public work. Students and residents practiced portable skills: listening across difference, framing public problems, making group decisions, and following through.
Washington’s hub pattern. In Skagit County, the early moves were humble—shared meals, listening sessions, small wins. The hinge moment came when people started asking each other questions of mutual aid: What can we do together next? That’s when a “gathering” became a civic hub.
Universities as civic labs. “Third Way Civics” at Ball State surfaced as a working blueprint: primary‑source inquiry, faculty as guides, and community‑connected projects. Translation: campuses can graduate bridge‑builders and problem‑solvers, not just content experts.
Service clubs as pathways. Rotaract/Rotary offered a practical bridge from youth leadership into lifelong civic participation—tying campus dialogue to year‑round service and, eventually, co‑governance.
“People want to be on a winning team—to make a difference and matter. Purpose plus visible progress is what keeps them coming back.”
What’s Forming: Fractal Forum + a Network of State Networks
Fractal Forum (alpha): Lightweight, recurring backbone conversations. Shared “signal board” showing open on‑ramps, replicable practices, and quick‑copy templates.
Network of State Networks: Each state weaves its own every‑kind‑of‑hub ecosystem (campuses, congregations, mediation centers, service clubs, neighborhood associations), with common language and shared learning.
House Language used across TTUS: 4B stance (Build, Bridge, Block, Belong) + Seven Elements of Civic Life (trust, learning, aspirations, truth, building, working‑out, reinvention) + Vital Conditions framing.
Washington State as a Living Lab
Paths to Understanding is coordinating a statewide weave: interfaith partners, service clubs, nonprofits, cultural orgs, and campuses. The playbook:
First‑contact experiences (welcoming, humanizing).
Skill‑building mini‑labs (listening, power‑mapping, convening).
Co‑created projects that upgrade local civic infrastructure (e.g., civic welcome practices in public spaces).
This becomes a reusable civic hub architecture for other states.
Credits
Thanks to contributors and participants named in the transcript and chat: Harry Boyte, Anand R. Marri, Sterling Speirn, Monte Roulier, David Eisner, Bobby Milstein, Terry Kyllo, Prabha Shankar Narayan, Danielle Reiff, Zachary Weaver, DG (NAFCM), and others.
Resources from the Chat (click to explore)
Organizations & Programs
Center for Public Deliberation (Colorado State University):
https://cpd.colostate.edu/
Family Leadership Training Institute (Colorado):
https://fltiofcolorado.colostate.edu/
Faith 250 (multi‑faith public leadership):
Research & Journalism
Gallup — Confidence in National Institutions May Have Local Roots: https://news.gallup.com/poll/692621/confidence-national-institutions-may-local-roots.aspx
Muncie named a 2020 All‑America City (Ball State context): https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2020/08/muncie-named-a-2020-all-america-city/
Events & Networks
Weave Education Group — conversation on the purpose of education: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/_gxxbYzbTW26lZaCK87adw
Signal from the chat: There’s a deep appetite to connect across differences and work on shared local goals. Our job is to make the routes obvious, trusted, and rewarding.
How It Fits Together
The Thriving Together Civic Innovation Network (TTCIN) is a “repeatable‑at‑every‑level” design: local hubs as the base unit → state cross‑sector problem‑solving networks → a national learning and coordination layer. Local hubs create first experiences and shared projects. States align resources across sectors. The national layer weaves, studies, and spreads what works. A companion League of Movements keeps strategy aligned across the broader democracy ecosystem so Bridging, Building, Blocking, and Belonging reinforce one another instead of competing.
Why it matters: When starting points are everywhere and progress is visible, people stay engaged. When dialogue leads to consequence, trust grows. When groups meet as groups, legitimacy deepens. When local patterns repeat up the chain, we scale without losing local texture.
Practical Next Steps
Host a low‑barrier “first experience.” Potluck, listening circle, or service project—end with one concrete, shared next step.
Map local assets using the Seven Elements; choose one element to strengthen now.
Design group‑to‑group encounters. Bring congregations, clubs, or classes together around a shared problem.
Apply the 4 B’s to one initiative—show how you’ll Bridge, what you’ll Build, what you’ll appropriately Block, and how you’ll grow Belonging.
Connect upward. Share lessons to your state network; pull support, stories, and tools from the national layer.
Conclusion: Turning Belonging into Public Work
Treat “All People, All Places Thriving—No Exceptions” as the design spec for civic life:
Make starting points ubiquitous and credible.
Make dialogue consequential.
Organize group‑to‑group.
Let each of the 4 B’s strengthen the other three.
When we do, people don’t just attend meetings—they co‑create the commons. That’s how a bigger We gets built, block by block, bridge by bridge.
Appendix: Quick Reference
Selected Links (from the chat)
Center for Public Deliberation (CSU):
https://cpd.colostate.edu/
Family Leadership Training Institute (CO):
https://fltiofcolorado.colostate.edu/
Faith 250:
Gallup on local roots of confidence: https://news.gallup.com/poll/692621/confidence-national-institutions-may-local-roots.aspx
Muncie—All‑America City: https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2020/08/muncie-named-a-2020-all-america-city/
Weave Education Group — registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/_gxxbYzbTW26lZaCK87adw
Who created the "Seven Pillars of Civic Life" framework and graphic? It's unclear to me if this is Walt's synthesis of some of what he heard in the Aug 21st call, of if someone else created it.