The American Civic Forum will work with legislative bodies and government agencies that seek citizen-government partnership in problem solving. It will help create a nonpartisan political voice at every level of policy making that emphasizes civic problem solving and civic capacity building and the idea of government as a catalytic agent. Civic Story Telling. The American Civic Forum will help to build a network of civic educators, in many settings, dedicated to analyzing and disseminating civic stories as an alternative to the mood of discouragement and despair in America. Developing skills of civic story telling will greatly aid community oriented health care, the community service movement, community development, educatal reform and many other areas.
Special attention needs to be focused on youth contributions to public life.
Many of these practices and functions have already been initiated by the emerging constituencies of a New Citizenship. The American Civic Forum is conceived as a diverse and pluralist confederation of groups and individuals dedicated to this citizenship. It will support existing efforts, while it seeks to give them greater visibility and public profile. The American Civic Forum includes many diverse points of view and perspective about questions such as the appropriate role of government and the market in our social and public life. Overall, the American Civic Forum is joined together by a common commitment to a politics of greater dignity and productiveness than that which prevails today and threatens the civic life of our republic.