Good afternoon RCAC members. I wanted to let you know of an upcoming opportunity to share the wisdom, ideas and experiences you've gained through CACs with some 9th grade students from Charlotte. A group of about 150 students from Charlotte's Providence Day school are planning to spend a few days in Raleigh (from 15-20 November) learning how an ordinance goes from an idea into law. In addition to hearing CAC success stories, the students plan to participate in a "mock city council session," pitching their ideas to a board of CAC chairs and/or city councilors in order to get feedback on their approaches. If you'd like to participate, you'd likely be needed only on Thursday the 15th or Friday the 16th as discussed in the schedule below. No need to be there all the time, either: whatever time you could share would be great. The trip is still tentative at this point but if you've got a good idea NOW whether you'll be able to join in or not, let me know and I'll pass that on to Ms. Field, the teacher organizing the trip. Regards, Mark RCAC chair 919.741.6329 -------- Original Message -------- The following is a possible draft outline for our trip: ------------- Before Nov 15th -Students learn about the basic institutions of the governance system from the local to the global level in their Global Civics classes -Students are also introduced to the topics of citizen action and advocacy (including sub-topics such as how a bill becomes a law and lobbying)--specific activities, questions, and/or readings can be chosen to intentionally set up Raleigh experiential learning activities -students will have been introduced to mock congressional activities which involve simplistic rules of parliamentary procedure and resolution writing -students could prepare research on issues of state and/or local concern for upcoming CAC activities in Raleigh Thursday Nov 15th - ~140 students and 12 teacher chaperones arrive in Raleigh -students are introduced to the Citizens Advisory Council process: ideally the students receive a short primer on the CAC process, a case study on an issue that went from local issue to municipal ordinance (e.g. dealing with dangerous dogs), coaching on how to turn an idea into a real legislative proposal, how to build support for an idea, etc and are thus empowered to participate in break out activities where they work in 7-8 groups of ~16-20 students each to craft proposals from the research they have completed in class and guidance they've received from CAC leaders (perhaps the Center for Community Leadership through the Junior League of Raleigh would be a good locale for this work?) -Thursday evening students would do something fun like see an NC State basketball game or spend time at a local entertainment locale like Adventure Landing -students spend evening in Raleigh Friday Nov 16th -students nominate peers from each of their 7-8 groups to present 3-4 min proposals to CAC representatives (and any other relevant, local officials possible) in a mock city council meeting. They receive responses and questions that would be asked of citizens who may be presenting similar ideas at a city council meeting, etc; at the end, CAC panel provides feedback on which proposals they found most compelling and the challenges/opportunities they would each face to moving forward in the legislative process -students move on in afternoon to visit state Capitol building and/or local NGOs in rotating groups of ~50 each -students return to Charlotte Monday Nov 19th -students sent in groups of ~50 to do morning visits to 3 different local businesses to learn about their self-advocacy processes and how they engage their local elected officials and institutions in the legislative process- they hear about case studies of how these businesses advanced their interests through the legislative process -students return to campus for lunch and an afternoon interactive session with Crossroads Charlotte on challenges/opportunities of how underrepresented populations engage their local governance systems Tuesday Nov 20th -students debrief trip activities (led by class dean, guidance counselor, and Director of Multicultural Affairs) with a focus on the process of self-advocacy and the challenges of coalition building In Global Civics classes after Nov 20th -students refine and debate modifications and evolutions of their initial CAC proposals as part of in-class simulations ------------------ Our timeframe for the trip has been set by our school administration, but the Thursday and Friday portions of the trip are malleable. In addition to being the class dean, I am also a 9th grade Global Civics teacher and can thus be a point person to coordinate the in-class set up and debrief activities that help facilitate and maximize the learning opportunities that will be made available to our students from this trip. I'm also cc'ing my history department chair, my division head, and the director of multicultural affairs--all of whom are integral to the 9th grade curriculum and our class trip process. Please feel free to forward these ideas on to anyone who you think may be able to and interested in helping us as well. I am very excited about the processes of experiential learning and empowering civic engagement in our students, and the CAC system sounds like a wonderful opportunity to thus engage our students. I look forward to learning more about how we may be able to work with you and those involved with the Citizens Advisory Councils in Raleigh to promote meaningful, hands-on, civic leadership education for our students! Please let me know if you think you see any real possibilities in the ideas I have brainstormed above and/or have further thoughts that would improve upon what I've sketched out. Please feel free to call me if this is easier than email: (980) 297-3725. Thank you so much for your time and help. Sincerely, Katy Field History & Global Studies Teacher 9th Grade Class Dean Coordinator of PDS chapter of Critical Friends Groups Professional Development Program