Find Opportunities to Get Involved

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

This introductory article was written by ChatGPT at the direction of Heidi Burgess, who reviewed, edited, and approved the final content. 
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June 27, 2026

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It depends on what Braver Angels calls "courageous citizens" who are willing to do more than complain, vote occasionally, or follow national politics from a distance. Much of democratic life happens close to home, where ordinary people help shape school policy, land-use decisions, library services, public safety practices, local budgets, and community norms. The National Civic League’s Model City Charter describes active, informed, inclusive public engagement as an essential element of healthy local democracy. That kind of engagement does not happen automatically. People have to look for places where their time, knowledge, and relationships can make a difference.

A good first step is to identify the level of government or community life where the issue you care about is actually being decided. A traffic problem may belong to a city transportation board. A school concern may be handled by a PTA, school board, or district advisory committee. A housing, water, library, policing, or open-space issue may involve a city council, county commission, special district, or appointed board. Most of these bodies post meeting calendars, agendas, minutes, and vacancy notices online. Reading those materials for a few weeks is often the fastest way to learn who has authority, what choices are coming up, and where public input is invited.

People should also look beyond formal government meetings. Many useful opportunities are organized by civic groups, neighborhood associations, faith communities, service clubs, advocacy organizations, and deliberative-dialogue projects. The National Civic League argues that inclusive civic engagement gives residents a place at the table in defining and improving public services. The National League of Cities similarly emphasizes that thoughtful engagement can deepen public trust by giving more people direct ways to participate in public decisions. These opportunities can be especially valuable for people who are not ready to run for office or speak at a contentious public hearing, but who are willing to learn, listen, and work with others.

Another way to find a good entry point is to choose the form of involvement that fits your abilities and schedule. Some people are most useful as regular volunteers. Others can contribute technical expertise, help convene conversations, serve on a board, support a campaign, register voters, or participate in a public budgeting process. Volunteer.gov offers one way to find service opportunities connected to federal public agencies. The Bridge Alliance used to run a website called Citizen's Connect, which listed volunteer opportunities with local organizations nationwide.  Unfortunately, they have stopped maintaining that website, but it is still available online, and most of those organizations are likely still active. The site also still has many articles on how to get involved in civic efforts.  The National Civic League also has a Healthy Democratic Ecosystem Map that has over 12,000 organizations nationwide that are working on some dimension of healthy democracy (although they define that term more broadly than we would), but it also shows many opportunities to get involved.  Lastly, the Participatory Budgeting Project explains how some communities let residents help decide how part of a public budget will be spent. The point is not that everyone must participate in the same way. A healthy democracy needs many different kinds of contribution.

The most important advice is to start small enough to keep going. Attend one meeting. Join one working group. Read one agenda. Ask one knowledgeable person where help is needed. Then pay attention to what you are learning about the system. Civic engagement is not just a way to express opinions; it is a way to discover how decisions are made, who is affected by them, and where constructive change is possible. When enough citizens do this kind of work, democracy becomes less dependent on distant leaders and more rooted in the everyday problem-solving capacity of the community itself.

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This page was created by ChatGPT in response to this prompt. It was then reviewed, edited, supplemented and approved by Heidi Burgess. More information about how and why we are using AI in this way, and about the growing number of ways in which Beyond Intractability is using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI systems to generate content and build out the BI system, is available on our BI/AI Overview Page. 

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As we have said elsewhere in this Guide (and many others have reiterated this idea, democracy is not "a spectator sport," though many people treat it that way.  They root for and some closely follow  "their team," rejoicing in their victories and despairing in their defeats. But other than (possibly) voting for their team every two our four years, they don't get involved in "politics."  That's other people's business, they assume.

If democracy is to survive in the United States or elsewhere, we must change this attitude and our approach to democracy. In his interview with us, long-time activist and citizenship trainer Harry Boyte suggested that democracy is a "way of life."

Nobody in the [civil rights] movement— all the older people who were my mentors — Septima Clark in the citizenship schools or Ella Baker or Bayard Rustin or King himself,— none of them thought democracy was mainly voting.  They all used some version of the old formulation that it was a "way of life," which was pretty much the idea of Alexis de Tocqueville when he traveled across America in the 1830s and then wrote Democracy in America, which was the title of his famous book. He said democracy was about people doing things, self-organizing. So I always thought about democracy as much bigger than simply elections.

And the role of the citizen is much more serious and substantial than simply as a voter or someone who obeys the law, the constitutional version of "citizen." 

Harry talked a lot about the "citizenship schools" in which Blacks, during the civil rights movement learned about nonviolence, and also about their roles and responsibilities as citizens of the United States.  

 Citizen identity was about being an active co-creative citizen, who was responsible for [their] communities, and who had a sense of ownership of [their] communities. And this was really striking, because these were African-Americans, who were disenfranchised and often in very disadvantaged positions. But the strength and the courage and the nonviolence that I saw with them had a huge impact on me.

If you want to improve your citizenship skills, we urge you to continue on through this Guide which will teach you a lot!  Or you can jump to our page that lists "civic skill builders" to find a training organization that can help you build your civic skills.  If you don't think you need help learning how to be an effective and engaged citizen, you can go directly to Citizen Connect to find a way that you can get involved and make a difference for your community and our democracy.

The links below will take you to much more information about how to be an engaged and effective citizen.