For the third year in a row, the Civic Health of Wisconsin Initiative organized and hosted Wisconsin’s Civic Health Challenge to celebrate National Civic Health Month in August. The Civic Health Challenge is a month-long effort designed to help us become active contributors to the civic health of our communities. This year’s activities centered on four central civic health themes: Elections & public sector participation, Volunteering, charitable giving, group participation, and social connectedness, Information consumption, depolarization, and threats of political violence, and K12 civics education and youth engagement.
What is Civic Health? We define “civic health” as: individual and collective engagement for communities to define and address public problems, and work toward conditions in which all can truly thrive, and which promote democracy.
What is Civic Health Month? A time when over 400 organizations around the country join together to “celebrate, learn, and take action to improve the civic health of their communities.” We’ve taken inspiration from Vot-ER to launch our own Civic Health Month, focusing on our definition of civic health and the issues that matter most in Wisconsin.
What is the Wisconsin Civic Health Challenge? A month of virtual trainings and individual challenges, based in Wisconsin’s Civic Health Report, and connected directly to the issues we care about most in our communities. The Civic Health Challenge helps participants grow their civic health muscles and connect with others around the state who share their interest in community engagement, shared problem solving, and democracy.
2026 Wisconsin Civic Health Challenge
Participants in the 2026 Civic Health Challenge received weekly emails with recommendations for how to enhance their civic health skills on their own time and participated in virtual mini-workshops centered on each week’s theme. Each workshop featured a 30-minute presentation by civic health experts in our network followed by a facilitated skill-building activity. You can explore the email content and workshop recordings below.
[Please note that the recordings only include the presentation portion of the workshop.]
Week 1: Elections & public sector participation
August 3, 2026 Email
August 5, 2026 Workshop: Debra Cronmiller, Wisconsin League of Women Voters
Week 2: Volunteering, charitable giving, group participation, and social connectedness
August 10, 2026 Email
August 12, 2026 Workshop: Laura Hanson Schlachter, AmeriCorps
Week 3: Information consumption, depolarization, and threats of political violence
August 17, 2026 Email
August 19, 2026 Workshop: Lisa Inks, Urban Rural Action
Week 4: K12 civics education and youth engagement
August 24, 2026 Email
August 26, 2026 Workshop: Neil Klemme, UW Division of Extension
Thank you to our partners at Wisconsin Partners and UW Division of Extension who helped organize this year’s Civic Health Challenge, and to the experts who led skill-building workshops!