Down East residents to learn how region compares to rest of the state in civic education

CHAPEL HILL – On Oct. 23, residents of Pitt, Greene, Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Edgecombe, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, Wayne, and Wilson counties will have the opportunity to shape the future of citizenship in North Carolina by participating in the Down East Community Forum. The forum will be held from 5:00 –8:15 p.m. at the Murphy Center on the campus of East Carolina University, and the public is invited. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be served. Students, local leaders, educators, and concerned citizens are encouraged to attend this important event. For reservations for the event, please email pdexter@iogmail.iog.unc.edu.

Forum participants will learn how the Down East region compares to the rest of the state in civic education and engagement. Such regional comparisons include the finding that youth in the Down East region report very low levels of trust in state and local government, yet their level of trust in the news media is the highest in the state. Down East youth are also the most likely in the state to report that they have applied civics to real-world issues in their classes.

Small group discussions will focus on these and other statewide and regional results from the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium’s Civic Index 2003, the first-ever statewide assessment of youth and adult civic education and engagement. Participants will brainstorm community-specific strategies to improve civic engagement. Additional information on the forums, including directions to the site, can be found at the Consortium’s Web site, www.civics.org.

Seven other forums are taking place throughout the state this fall. Because the Civic Education Consortium will not be able to reach all of North Carolina’s municipalities through the forums, the Consortium will publish a Community Forum Tool Kit, which is a how-to guide for communities to host their own community forums. These tool kits will be available in Winter 2004.

The forums were planned by a group of local organizers and the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, a statewide nonpartisan partnership housed at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The forums have been generously funded by local individuals and organizations such as Capital Management of the Carolinas; Philip R. Dixon, Sr.; East Carolina

University; John Minges; RBC Centura Bank branches in Rocky Mount, Morehead City, Tarboro, Goldsboro, and Wilson; Rivers & Associates, P.A.; Sumrell, Sugg, Carmichael, Hicks & Hart, P.A.; Tands Inc. /Bojangles; Tri County Communications; and Ward & Smith, and state and national foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

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Contact: Leslie Anderson, Special Consultant to the Consortium, 828-252-4913, lesliea@ioa.com; Kelley O’Brien, Civic Index Project Director, Civic Education Consortium, 919-960-4226, obrien@iogmail.iog.unc.edu