Our Work

A group of students sit on rocks underneath UMBC's Forum Sculpture. One student stands in the middle of the group behind a camera, which is pointing at another student who is sitting on a rock and talking.

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life’s mission is to help people develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create healthy communities and tackle challenges together. We envision an ideal world where UMBC students, faculty, staff, and alumni contribute to a thriving democracy in which people experience themselves as empowered co-creators of their communities and nation and embrace each other as fully human and morally equal. Our work builds from the premise that civic life encompasses everyday settings and relationships through which people can generate the power to shape their world.

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life works with campus, local, and national partners to produce, inspire, and share innovations in civic learning and democratic engagement. Our work includes (but is not limited to):

  • Developing and providing learning opportunities for a variety of forms of civic engagement, including leadership for public purpose, sustained engagement in social justice, and civic dialogue;
  • Facilitating election and voter engagement for UMBC community members;
    Hosting public forums for people to connect, learn from each other, and engage in co-creating the UMBC community;
  • Working with student media organizations to foster a well-informed, engaged, and empowered campus community;
  • Generating knowledge and insights about civic engagement and the advancement of a thriving democracy; and
  • Providing consultation and resources for UMBC community members who want to advance positive social change and co-create a thriving democracy in which everyone matters and belongs.

Visit our Contact Us page to learn how to stay up-to-date with our work and opportunities.

In a thriving democracy, people experience themselves as empowered co-creators of their communities and nation, and embrace each other as fully human and morally equal, including honoring people’s experiences with race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, and other aspects of identity.
The Center for Democracy and Civic Life helps individuals and groups develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to contribute to a thriving democracy. As described in the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Theory of Change, these essential civic capacities include:

  • Civic Literacy and Discernment – individual and collective knowledge of democracy’s principles, contested features, history, and expressions in the U.S. and around the world; knowledge of the philosophical and practical dimensions of public policy issues, and understanding of different perspectives on those issues; and the capacity to distinguish factual claims made credibly and in good faith from error and propaganda.
  • Civic Agency – individuals’ self-conception as active agents shaping their world, as well as their capacities to recognize cultural practices, navigate complex institutions and undemocratic environments, imagine alternative arrangements and futures, and develop strategies for effective individual and collective action; and the collective capacities to develop a vision for our common life, recognize and respond to problems, make decisions generally accepted as legitimate, and foster the ongoing development of all of these capacities.
  • Real Communication – individual and collective capacities to engage in civil, unscripted, honest communication grounded in our common humanity, including about issues in connection with which individuals disagree based on their different stakes, life experiences, values, and aspirations; and the sensitivity and situational awareness to listen well and communicate authentically and effectively with different audiences.
  • Critical Solidarity – individual and collective recognition of the intrinsic worth and equality of all human beings, capacity to envision and identify with each other’s journeys and struggles, and disposition to work for the full participation (Strum, Eatman, Saltmarsh & Bush, 2011) of all Americans in our democratic life and against violations of people’s agency and equality.
  • Civic Courage – individuals’ willingness to risk position, reputation, and the comforts of stability in order to pursue justice and remove barriers to full participation in democratic life, openness to learning from others, including people with less formal training, positional power, and social status, and resilience in the face of adversity; and the collective capacity to embrace changes in cultural practices and institutional arrangements when such changes promote the general welfare and full participation in democratic life.
  • Integrity and Congruence – individual and collective capacities and commitments to enact democratic values in our everyday interactions, professional roles, cultural practices, institutional arrangements, public decisions, policies, and laws.

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life seeks to enact the interrelated personal and institutional values identified in the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Theory of Change:

  • Dignity – respect for the intrinsic moral equality of all persons
  • Humanity – embracing environments and interactions that are generative and organic; rejecting objectification, and the marginalization of people based on aspects of their identities
  • Decency – acting with humility and graciousness; rejecting domination for its own sake
  • Honesty – frankness with civility; congruence between stated values and actions; avoidance of deceit, evasions, and manipulative conduct
  • Curiosity – eagerness to learn, have new experiences, and tap the wisdom of other people
  • Imagination – creativity and vision, including with respect to possible futures in which all of these values have become more central to our society and institutions
  • Wisdom – discernment; comfort with complexity; nonmanipulability
  • Courage – fortitude to act with integrity even when there is a cost; capacity to thrive in the midst of ambiguity, uncertainty, and change; willingness to acknowledge vulnerability
  • Community – belief that advancing the general welfare requires organized, collective work, enacted through relationships, partnerships, and networks, leveraging the diverse perspectives and talents of many people in order to produce benefits greater than the sum of their individual contributions
  • Participation – action with other people to develop and achieve shared visions of the common good
  • Stewardship – responsibility to act individually and collectively in ways that support others’ well-being, and the preservation and cultivation of resources, including norms and processes, necessary for all to thrive
  • Resourcefulness – capacity to improvise, seek and gain knowledge, solve problems, and develop productive public relationships and partnerships
  • Hope – belief in the power of people to bring about desired transformations; tenacity

Civic Life Maxims are ideas at the heart of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life’s work. We weave these ideas into initiatives that help UMBC students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners form strong connections across identities and roles; see everyday settings in new and empowering ways; and leverage their passions, perspectives, and stories to shape a collective future in which everyone can thrive.

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CIVIC LIFE IS EVERYWHERE.

Civic life is commonly described in narrow terms: as encompassing government, elections, efforts to hold public officials accountable, and community service, but not much else. Yet all of us can be agents and architects of the future we would like to see in every setting, welcoming and empowering each other to make meaningful changes in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities.

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OUR WORLD IS MADE OF MEANINGS.

Human beings are meaning-makers, and we experience everything through our interpretations, even when we are not conscious of the process. As a consequence, we can make profound changes and open up astonishing new possibilities by transforming the meanings people make of themselves, their relationships, and their institutions. Walls can become doors.

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PEOPLE WANT TO MATTER AND BELONG.

The primal, human yearning for consequentiality and connectedness crosses every demographic and political line in our society. Regardless of people’s life experiences and backgrounds, we need to know that our actions can make a difference, and that we are a part of something larger than ourselves.

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STORIES ARE EVERYTHING.

Stories humanize people to each other, reduce our sense of loneliness, and reveal our hidden worlds. When we listen closely and compassionately and draw out one another’s fears and hopes, we forge very strong connections that position us to take meaningful action together.

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WHO WE ARE IS WHAT WE BRING.

Our quirks can point the way to the most important contributions we could choose to make. We can learn how to see, embrace, and share the very traits that make us feel isolated.

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TRUST MAKES US.

When people are willing to take action together, especially action that involves accepting risks or burdens, the reason almost always comes down to trust. We become a community capable of acting collectively to advance our interests at the point that we have trust, and we remain a community that can thrive only to the extent that we maintain each other’s trust.

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CHANGE HAPPENS.

The challenges and injustices in U.S. society can seem permanent, and solutions can seem beyond the reach of ordinary people. But our institutions and environments are not finished or complete. All of us can take actions together that can solve problems and strengthen our communities.

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WE BUILD THE WORLD WE KNOW.

People working for change can unintentionally perpetuate inhumanity and injustice by embedding them in the change process itself. It is important to guard against this tendency. And it is important to create experiences of humane, just, thriving communities so potential change agents can hold those experiences in their hearts and minds.

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TIME IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE.

The past is not set in stone because we can reinterpret it. When we find empowering and connective meanings in past events we experienced initially as discouraging and isolating, we can open new possibilities for the future. Sometimes the quickest path to positive change is through the past.

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THIS IS REAL.

In many aspects of life in the U.S., the implicit template for social interactions is that of a game with rules, moves, winners, and losers. But our lives are real, and so are we. We can pursue possibilities that defy the template when we recognize each other as fully human and fully present.