August is Civic Health Month! The Civic Health of Wisconsin Initiative is organizing Wisconsin’s 2025 Civic Health Challenge, which is designed to help us become active contributors to the civic health of our communities. Each week will feature challenges around a central focus area: Social Connectedness, Political Participation, Media & Information, and Community Connectedness.
Sign up here to participate!
Week 2 Challenges: Political Participation
Synchronous activity:
Tuesday, August 12, 12-1pm
Presentation and workshop about participating in local government (Elizabeth McCrank, Community Development Institute)
Tuesday, August 12, 12-1pm
Presentation and workshop about participating in local government (Elizabeth McCrank, Community Development Institute)
Challenges to do on your own:
- Read and learn about your alder, city or county board representative, school board representative, or neighborhood association. Consider whether there is any issue you’d like to reach out about and send a message through their publicly available social media or email to introduce yourself and let them know your thoughts. Investigate on your local government’s websites when and where meetings of elected bodies and committees take place.
- Option A: Peruse the meeting schedule and issues and consider whether you’d like to attend a meeting sometime soon!
- Option B: Ask your alder if there’s a way you can share your input as a constituent or offer any help on the issues they are working on.
- Research different models of decision-making, such as majority vote, sociocracy, ranked choice voting, etc. Experiment with one of them – for example, ask your family to use ranked choice voting to decide what to eat this weekend, or try a consent-decision-making process with your team at work.
- Consider what barriers individuals in your community may face in participating in elections (for example, transportation, Voter ID, instructions for registration after a move, etc). Are there any organizations you can get involved with which are working on these issues? Are there any personal contacts in your life who may face challenges? Consider reaching out to make a connection to pitch in on bringing down barriers — before the next election cycle!
Recommended resources:
- League of Women Voters of Wisconsin – Voter Information: The Wisconsin League of Women Voters publishes information about local elections, including guidance on polling places and voter registration, as well as facts about candidates and issues. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin is part of our inventory of civic health organizations in Wisconsin.
- UW Extension’s Local Government Leadership Academy: The Local Government Leadership Academy is a cohort program that helps participants develop local government leadership skills.
