Elevating Diverse Voices Through New Models of Civic Engagement

Points of Light’s Civic Circle® is a framework that helps the social sector advance a cause or social issue based on the idea that a diversified engagement strategy, intentionally expanded beyond volunteering, can create pathways for increased and deeper engagement. For those not yet involved, it provides an onramp where there may be barriers. For those already involved, it provides ways to deepen engagement.

Points of Light is focusing on Civic Circle adoption in three different areas. First, we are doing a place-based pilot in Houston to explore what it would look like to apply the Civic Circle in one city in a series of partnerships to increase civic engagement. Second, we’re conducting an issue-based Civic Circle pilot around disaster preparedness, as nonprofits are often on the front lines of response. Finally, we’re leaning into the voice component of our framework to explore how we can uplift more diverse voices in civic engagement and social impact work. Our session will examine the impact of increasing diversity of voices, how nonprofits can expand their voice and advocacy work, and what we learned in the process of taking a deep dive into this element of the Civic Circle.