Possibilities for Community-Engaged/Civic Education

There are plenty of ways to connect our courses to the world around us, whether you’re teaching online or hybrid.

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Below are strategies along with specific local examples of how to engage with the local community. Click each header to see more.

CECE Strategies with Local Examples

  • Partner with community agencies for project-based learning with community clients. Provide remote support (online research, content creation, social media, outreach, feedback analysis) for local agencies. Contact RISE for ideas.
  • Plan a community food drive where students collect items for their local food bank.
  • Have students learn about the City of Bellevue and participate in shaping policy.
  • Ask students to create proposals for local organizations on improving capacity, launching programs, or achieving goals, or contribute to resource guides for community clients.
  • Make chew toys for dogs in shelters using old rags or t-shirts (video tutorial).
  • Provide crisis and counseling support from home through the Crisis Text Line.

  • Ask your students to share websites and social media profiles about causes that they care about, and reflect about how they support these causes.
  • Ask students to create an online social media campaign that highlights the inequities in educational, justice, healthcare, etc. systems.
  • Create plans for activism and community organizing around topics of local or global importance.
  • Ask students to create a civic impact by commenting on public legislation, writing to / calling elected officials, attending virtual city council meetings, attending virtual community organizing meetings, etc. Contact RISE to discuss.
  • Use platforms like Democracy.io to enable students to write directly to their Senators and Representatives (being a citizen not required). Have students research and write to their local officials or media.
  • Students can create ‘position papers‘ on certain policies or campaigns. For example, Defunding Police: why or why not? People could organize a virtual debate and ask other students/classes to attend.
  • Create works of art as a form of protest.
  • Gamify civics. Make learning about them more fun.
  • Ask students to attend virtual Civic Saturdays and then reflect on the experience.
  • Pick up neighborhood trash and post a video talking about why this matters.
  • Participate in the Changemaker Challenge by using art to recognize those who contribute to their communities; for each recognition, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate to youth and educators.

  • Search Facing History and Ourselves for social justice curricula, resources, and videos.
  • Have students play Spent and reflect on challenges faced by those living paycheck-to-paycheck and connections to homelessness.
  • Ask students to read aloud books by Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian, and other People of Color to youth.
  • Engage in storytelling to magnify unheard voices using Culture Surge as a model.
  • Have students observe local juvenile court cases and reflect on how they perpetuate criminal justice inequities (sessions are public and many are streamed).
  • Write letters or cards to youth in juvenile detention, especially around holidays.

  • Use National Issues Forums Institute PDF booklets for deliberative dialogues (on Service-Learning SharePoint), or guides from Living Room Conversations and the Interactivity Foundation.
  • Foster community dialogues where students discuss class topics with 5-10 community members and report back.
  • Lead virtual discussions using Consider.It.
  • Host “Hot Drinks and Hot Topics” informal chats about current events relevant to the course.
  • Ask students to invite friends and family to class conversations, with trained students facilitating small group dialogues.

  • Invite guest speakers or use TED Talks instead of texts. Note: RISE may be able to help find guest speakers.
  • Access public records and laws to ground course content in community contexts.
  • Incorporate virtual Place-Based Education using local natural, built, historic, or cultural environments. Contact RISE to brainstorm.
  • Require students to listen to podcasts and reflect on connections to course material.
  • Ensure sources reflect diversity of histories and perspectives.
  • Update curriculum using Native Cases to frame topics from Indigenous perspectives.

  • Integrate critical reflection to help students process current events in connection to course material. Contact RISE for suggestions.
  • Have students journal or write about what they want their world to look like.
  • Connect content to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and discuss actions to meet at least one goal.
  • Ask students to make a wish for the U.S. through Made By Us.
  • Join #WeavingCommunity to share: What are you experiencing? What are you doing for yourself and others? What’s the life we want?
  • Conduct interviews with often unappreciated Bellevue College staff and reflect on their importance to the community.
  • Combine Drawdown with a carbon footprint calculator to explore actions addressing climate change.
  • Use the Slavery Footprint calculator to identify actions to reduce human rights impact.

  • Have students research ballot issues and explore various perspectives.
  • Attend candidate forums and reflect on how shared values appear in policy proposals.
  • Create a class strategy for voter and/or Census engagement. RISE has resources to share.
  • Use Census data from the 2020 Census and American Family Surveys to teach Excel, statistics, and data analytics.
  • Review redistricting maps or create new ones, connecting proposals to diversity and politics.

  • Engage with OSoMeNet to understand how topics spread through social media and learn to identify trolls.
  • Use the RedBlue Dictionary for definitions without political biases and AllSides for information about bias and fact-checking.
  • Have students read two Op-Eds from reputable sources for each topic and reflect on the importance of different viewpoints.

Looking to volunteer in the community?

You and/or your students may feel the urge to volunteer in the community. Definitely do it! Find in-person volunteer opportunities at BC in the Community, and Idealist. The BC in the Community web portal offers 85+ local organizations, hour logging, and volunteer resume creation.

Looking for on-campus volunteer opportunities?

At Bellevue College, you can: