Civic Education Workshops for Your Group
The short answer. We come to your group and explain how American government actually works, in about ninety minutes, in English or Spanish. There is no charge. You do not pay us, we do not sell anything at the end, and nobody is asked to sign anything or give a name at the door.
A website answers the question somebody already knew how to ask. A room answers the one they were not willing to type. That is the entire reason we do this in person as well as in writing, and the harder questions almost always come out in the room.
What a Workshop Covers
You pick the focus. Most groups take the first one and add a second depending on what is happening locally.
Who decides what
The three levels of government, the three branches inside each one, and the several separate local governments sitting on your address. Where the trash contract, the zoning decision, the school calendar, the property tax rate and the federal benefit each actually get decided. This is the workshop that stops people calling the wrong office for the rest of their lives.
How to be heard locally
Public comment, what a council agenda looks like before you walk in, the three minutes at the microphone, how to find out when your item is scheduled, and how to write a comment that staff will read rather than count.
Reading a ballot you have never seen
Every office on a real sample ballot and what each one does. How to research a local race when there is no coverage. Registration, deadlines, mail and early voting in your state. No candidates, no recommendations, no party framing. Ever.
The Constitution, without the fog
What the document does, what the Bill of Rights protects, which rights belong to people rather than only to citizens, and what separation of powers means in a real dispute rather than in a diagram.
Getting an answer out of an agency
Congressional casework, which costs nothing and which almost nobody knows exists. What a caseworker can and cannot do. Calling against emailing. How a public records request works. What to do when a file has been sitting for months.
Community forum
Residents and local officials in the same room, with questions collected in advance so nobody has to raise a hand cold. We moderate, we keep it nonpartisan, and we make sure the questions that were submitted actually get answered.
Every workshop ends the same way, with the twenty question Civic Coach run live in the room, out loud, with nobody’s score announced. It is the part people remember, because it is the moment a room of adults finds out together that none of them were ever taught this.
Who We Come To
Congregations, libraries, community centers, unions and worker centers, employers running a lunch hour, resident associations, English language programs, senior centers, student groups, and any group of neighbors who can find a room. Our focused outreach goes to minority and immigrant communities and to working people who do not have the time to decode an agency website, because that is where the gap is widest. Everything we do is open to anyone.
There is no minimum group size that we take seriously. Twelve people in a church basement has produced better questions than a full auditorium more than once.
Terms and Disclaimer
Set out formally, so that a host organization can put it in front of a board, a pastor, a principal or a general counsel and get an answer in one reading.
Organizational status. We Are Americans Foundation is a nonprofit corporation recognized as tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, EIN 42-4404250. It is not a government agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any federal, state, county, municipal or tribal government.
Nonpartisan obligation. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are prohibited by federal law from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. The Foundation does not endorse, oppose, rate or rank any candidate, party or committee, and does not take positions on partisan legislation. Where a policy question is genuinely disputed, presenters describe the dispute and identify the principal positions taken by others. Any opinion voiced by a presenter, volunteer or attendee is that individual’s own and is not attributable to the Foundation.
Educational purpose only. Workshops provide general educational information about the structure and operation of government in the United States. They do not constitute legal, financial, tax or other professional advice, and no attorney-client or other professional relationship is created by attending. The Foundation does not represent individuals, review individual documents, or advise on any person’s individual legal matter. Attendees with questions about their own circumstances should consult a licensed professional in their jurisdiction.
Cost and information collected. Workshops are provided without charge. There is no fee, no required donation and nothing offered for sale. Attendees are not required to register, sign an attendance sheet, or state or produce any personal information as a condition of attendance. Workshops are not recorded and attendees are not photographed except where the host organization arranges it and the persons appearing have consented.
Relationship with the host. Scheduling a workshop does not create a contract, partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between the Foundation and the host organization or any attendee. The host is responsible for the venue and for compliance with applicable safety and accessibility requirements at that venue. Workshops are subject to availability, and the Foundation reserves the right to decline or discontinue a workshop that cannot be conducted consistently with its nonpartisan obligations or with the safety of attendees.
Accuracy. Law, regulation, procedure, deadlines and fees change without notice, and much of what is described varies by state and locality. Material is presented as accurate to the date stated and without warranty of any kind. Attendees should verify any fact on which they intend to rely with the responsible government office.
What a Host Provides
- A room and a time. Ninety minutes is the usual length. Sixty works. Two hours works better if there is a forum attached.
- People. You know your community and we do not. Turnout is the one thing a host does that we cannot do for them.
- A screen if you have one. Helpful and not required. We have run workshops with nothing but a whiteboard and it went fine.
- A note about language. Tell us in advance if the room is mostly Spanish-speaking, mostly bilingual, or mixed, and we will plan the workshop around that instead of improvising.
That is the whole list. We bring the material, the printed handouts, and the person who has answered these questions before.
Request a Workshop
Write to us through the contact page and tell us four things: who your group is, roughly how many people, which topic you want, and whether the room needs English, Spanish, or both. There is no form to fill in on this site and no account to create. A short message is enough.
If we cannot reach your area in person yet, say so anyway. We run workshops remotely, and everything covered in a workshop is published on this site at no charge so a volunteer in your own group can lead it without us.
Questions Hosts Ask
Is there really no charge?
Yes. There is no fee, no minimum donation, and no upsell. We are a nonprofit and this is the work, not a lead in to something else.
How do you keep it nonpartisan?
By teaching process rather than positions. How a bill moves, what a county board controls, when a comment period opens: none of that belongs to a party. When an attendee raises a contested policy question, the presenter lays out how the decision gets made and who is arguing what, then hands the judgment back to the room. Hosts who have been burned before tend to test us on this early in the workshop, and they are right to.
Is the workshop open to everyone in our community?
Yes. There is no sign in, nobody is asked anything about themselves at the door, and the material is about how government works for people who live here. We do not advise on anyone’s personal legal situation, so nothing in the workshop goes anywhere near it.
Do you record it?
Not unless the host asks and everyone present agrees. The default is no recording and no photographs of attendees.
Can our own volunteer run it instead?
Yes, and we will help. Everything we teach is on this site, yours to use, adapt, print and project, with no permission needed. Some of the best workshops have been run by a member of the group who read the pages first and knew the room better than we ever would.
How far in advance should we ask?
The earlier the better, and especially in the weeks before an election, when demand climbs and calendars fill. Ask anyway if it is short notice, because sometimes it works.
Keep Going
What civic education is, and what it teaches. Why it matters to a community. Take the test. How we work and how we are funded.