Project One-Pagers
Click below to see one-page summaries of a variety of projects the Citizens League is moving forward with in 2008. (These documents were prepared for the February 28th Policy Open House.)
Energy and the Environment Action Group
This group of young Citizens League members is working with school classes to build rain gardens in the Twin Cities. Rain gardens collect storm-water runoff so that pollutants are filtered into the ground rather than running directly into our lakes, streams, and rivers. Each rain garden is small, but collectively they produce substantial neighborhood and regional environmental benefits - and the construction process is a great hands-on learning experience for students.
CitiZing!
CitiZing! will be Minnesota's first online civic networking platform, providing a space for citizens, policymakers, and other interested parties to come together to work out real solutions to common problems.
Civic Leadership Development
This year, we will be implementing a civic leadership development program, including workshops and a leadership-building course. We're also working to make sure that all Citizens League activities help members build their civic capacity, from gatherings like Policy and a Pint®, to study committees, to structured classes.
Immigration and Higher Education Study Committee
As Minnesota's immigrant population has increased over the last three decades, our institutions of education have wrestled with questions of how to integrate immigrant students into our schools - and whether our schools are up to the task. Our 2006 study committee identified policy questions that we believe are key to increasing immigrant students' readiness for and success in higher education, and a second study committee is developing specific recommendations in response. (Click here for more on the study committee)
Policy Advancement: Judicial Selection
The Citizens League is using groups of members to evaluate and update our historic work. We are currently considering an updated position on the judicial selection process.
Policy Advancement: Medical Care
Sean Kershaw, the Citizens League executive director, just finished serving on the Governor's Health Care Transformation Task Force, and the Citizens League strongly supports the provisions of that work relating to information and governance. We are currently assessing our historic work in the areas of access, insurance and payment.
Policy Advancement: Minnesota Mental Health Action Group
The Minnesota Mental Health Action Group is a public-private partnership working for better mental health care in Minnesota. The Citizens League has convened MMHAG since 2003.
Students Speak Out
In the summer of 2007, the Citizens League launched www.studentsspeakout.org, a social networking website designed to elevate student voices in education policy conversations. Now, two student groups are working to come up with solutions to policy problems they have identified in their schools.
Policy Advancement: Transportation
The Citizens League is calling for more choices and more transparent funding mechanisms in order to create a transportation system that is fiscally sustainable and responds to the choices of users and beneficiaries.