Tom Sander does a nice job on his Social Capital Blog articulating the significance of Tuesday’s election for those of us focused on social capital and civic engagement. He notes that after reaching all time lows a decade ago, voter turnout approached, and perhaps surpassed, the all time highs.

Clearly there are signs the tide is starting to turn on civic engagement, with the significant youth vote being especially heartening for me. Motivated by what at the time was low youth interest in politics and other forms of participation beyond volunteering, the Youth Council was the first program we established when we started SCI seven years ago. One of my favorite Youth Council projects is the one where the youth facilitate debates among candidates for local office at the local high school.  read more »

A bit scary that 8 years after the contested elections of 2000 there are numerous reports questioning if we'll be able to get a clean, accurate count of the vote in some key swing states.  I'd like to go to sleep next Tuesday knowing who are next president will be, but alas, that once again may not be the case.

MassVote is a nonpartisan organization promoting voter education and participation.  They have produced these nonpartisan voting tips that look like a great reference for voters, especially those new to the process.  While we might not personally be able to prevent hanging chads in Florida, going into the polls well informed of the process can go a long way to helping ensure our votes are counted.  With a large turnout expected, their suggestion to try to vote early if possible is worth noting.

Happy voting!

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A big crowd was on hand for today's Ounce of Prevention:  Power of Community conference sponsored by the Mass. Department of Public Health.  It's good to see so many people interested in preventative approaches to important public health issues, and certainly building social capital fits well within this context.

I co-presented a workshop today with Dave Weed of Healthy City Fall River on "Using Web-Based Technology to Organize, Publicize and Promote Healthy Communities".  We had a good showing of people interested in the topic so I promised to upload my presentation here for people who didn't get a copy or who come across this post and are interested.   Note the file is 3,977 KB.

Social Capital Inc. (SCI) and St. John's Baptist Church are very proud to present a screening of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North. The film will be shown Thursday, November 13th at 7 pm in the Woburn Memorial High School Auditorium.  read more »

During these challenging times, the underlying premise of SCI, that we need each other, has never been more salient. The calls of people looking for help and resources are getting more frequent. Just yesterday my day started with a call from a colleague looking for resources for a teen needing support to stay in school.  When times are tough, we get through by leaning on our friends and neighbors. When those supports aren’t there, it’s even harder to get by. During the coming months, we’ll certainly be tapping the social networks we’ve developed over the past 6 years to help strengthen the local connections that will help us all navigate the road ahead.

The times also underline the importance of teaching the value of looking out for our neighbors. The SCI Dorchester Youth Council is once again readying to collect canned food through the annual Trick-or-Treat for Canned Foods they initiated several years ago to replenish food pantry shelves in advance of the holiday food drives. The Woburn Youth Council has routinely done a coat drive as the weather turns cold.  read more »