FAQ
GENERAL INQUIRIES
Q: WHAT IS CIVIC LEARNING?
A: Civic learning is a concept of civic education that includes interactions in families, community activities, online, and throughout K-12 and higher education. The aim of civic learning is to produce citizens who are well-informed, productively engaged in working for the common good, and hopeful about our democracy. To learn more, the full research study completed by Raj Vinnakota can be found here.
Q: What is the Civic Spring Project?
A: The concept of the Civic Spring Project was developed in Spring of 2020 when the team at The WW National Fellowship Foundation considered how to create a civic learning ecosystem in the era of a historic pandemic. Ultimately, they brought together a skilled and diverse task force to set the groundwork for CSP, which is intended to seed at least five innovative and inspiring projects.
Q: How can I contribute to the Civic Spring Project and other civic learning initiatives?
A: You can directly support initiatives and projects like the Civic Spring Project. Follow this link
Q: Will the application be open again?
A: The project isn’t funding any other projects at the moment. Sign up to be notified if that changes.
Q: Why have 2 of the 6 awards gone to new jersey projects?
A: One of the funders is based and focused on work in New Jersey. Applicants were made aware that there was additional funding available for projects in New Jersey.
Q: I have an idea for a project how do I connect with someone from the Civic Spring Project?
A: The project isn’t funding any other projects at the moment.
Q: What is the Civic Spring Project Task Force and can I be involved?
A: The task force was selected for their expertise in the civic education space and their diversity in their work and across the political spectrum. The task force isn’t taking new members at the moment but please email civiceducation@woodrow.org if you are interested in contributing in the future.
Q: Who runs the Civic Spring Project?
A: The team at the WW Foundation is administering the Civic Spring Project.
Q: How do I get in contact with a grantee?
Q: How will you know if the Civic Spring Project is successful?
At the WW Foundation, one of our core values is “We are constantly learning and improving”. In order to keep to our values, we have set up multiple approaches to learn from this work before, during and after the project is complete. Here are a few of the ways we are doing this:
- We have partnered with the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), part of Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life, to capture data about the work and conduct research about how capacity is developed in young people.
- We asked the grantees to define evaluation mechanisms specific to their own projects as part of their application.
- We have a Community of Practice for all grantees that is led and developed by young leaders and includes participants from all of the grantees partnerships. One of the core objectives of the community of practice is to capture and share lessons being learned from the work on-the-ground.
- We are implementing some new measurement tools in partnership with Public Agenda
- What we learn will be shared with the public.