Daily Resource Highlight - 6/21/2021

Posted by on June 21, 2021 at 5:53 PM

Below are the highlights and featured resources of this past week’s Daily* Resource.

6/14/2021 - Helping Gov’t Do Its Job; Making Sure Gov’t Does Its Job 

The Bridge Alliance is a diverse network of organizations and community leaders. People talk about government “insiders” and “outsiders,” and the Bridge Alliance has both. That’s because we firmly believe that healthy self-governance requires us to hold elected and appointed officials accountable as well as support them in their work and provide them with the best resources possible.

Liz Hempowicz of Project on Government Oversight (POGO) recently testified before Congress on the need to strengthen our systems for accountability. More specifically, she implored Congress to pass legislation that would (1) increase government watchdog authority; (2) ensure their independence from political actors; and (3) hold the watch dogs themselves accountable to prevent abuses of authority. You can read Liz’s full testimony here, or read a summary of POGO’s recommendations on the issue.

The Millennial Action Project (MAP), meanwhile, recently released its 2020 impact report. MAP did an outstanding job of supporting state and federal legislators throughout the country by providing networking opportunities, encouraging collaboration, and bringing attention to their work. With millennials rapidly taking on the leadership mantle in our nation, MAP provides a terrific support network to both congressional and state legislators to help them do their jobs.

Finally, National Civic League in many ways seeks to both support public officials and hold them accountable. In a recent article titled “Assault on City Management Undermines Local Integrity,” NCL promotes the council-manager form of local governance and details recent pushes toward a mayor-council model. NCL argues that the mayor-council model is less efficient, politicizes city governance, and takes power away from local legislatures. You can learn more about the two models and why the NCL favors the council-manager model here.

 

6/17/2021 - New Strategic Partner PFAD Focused on “Our Common Purpose”

In June 2020, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released “Our Common Purpose” -- a set of 31 recommendations developed by the “Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship.” The stated purpose of the project is to reinvent American democracy for the 21st century. You can access a PDF copy of the recommendations here.

The next step is implementation, which is the goal of our new strategic partner, Partnership for American Democracy. PFAD officially launches on July 1, 2021, and you’re invited! This new initiative will bring attention, energy, and resources to the healthy self-governance movement as it (the movement) works to implement the strategies outlined in Our Common Purpose.

Moving from the big picture to the grassroots, we also want to take a moment to shout out Cities of Service for their efforts to support local growth. Cities of Service helped fund grants to six small businesses in Washington, D.C.’s 8th Ward with the goal of helping that community navigate the pandemic; both economically and culturally.

 

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