The Gilbert Chamber Foundation’s Civic Engagement work aims to reboot civic learning and reignite community engagement. With our quarterly civic events and initiative with the National Civics Bee, we encourage citizens to address social issues and foster community resilience, thereby increasing the community's overall health. Addressing the decline in civic knowledge requires concerted efforts in education, community engagement, and public discourse. By revitalizing civic education and fostering a culture of active citizenship, we can strengthen our connection to the country and ensure the health and vitality of not just our democracy but our society.
The Gilbert Chamber Foundation is uniquely positioned to contribute to civic dialogue because the Chamber plays a crucial role in building social capital for the community. Through the following ways, the Gilbert Chamber Foundation’s civic engagement work makes a tremendous difference:
The Gilbert Chamber Foundation serves as a hub for local businesses, providing opportunities for networking and collaboration. By bringing together business leaders and community members, the Chamber fosters relationships that build trust and mutual support, which are the foundations of social capital.
By promoting businesses and economic growth, the Chamber enhances the community's overall well-being. Successful companies contribute to a strong local economy, supporting social programs, infrastructure, and public services that benefit everyone.
The Chamber is a voice for the business community, advocating for policies and regulations supporting economic development and community well-being. This advocacy helps create a favorable environment for thriving businesses, strengthening social bonds and community resilience.
The Chamber organizes social gatherings that bring together diverse groups of people. These events build community and belonging, fostering connections between businesses and residents and enhancing social cohesion.
The Chamber promotes philanthropy and volunteerism, which helps address social issues, strengthens community ties, and builds a culture of giving back.
The Chamber shares updates about local economic conditions, business opportunities, and community initiatives. This information helps community members make informed decisions and stay connected. The Chamber creates a platform for problem-solving and innovation by bringing together diverse stakeholders. Collaborative efforts to address local challenges contribute to a dynamic and resilient community, further enhancing social capital.
In essence, the Gilbert Chamber and its Foundation play a pivotal role in weaving the social fabric of a community. By fostering connections, supporting economic vitality, and promoting civic engagement, the Chamber helps build the trust, cooperation, and networks of relationships that constitute social capital. This, in turn, strengthens the community, making it more vibrant, cohesive, and capable of facing future challenges.
Each quarter, we host ‘A Civic Event,’ a free-themed event open to the entire community with a portion funded and supported by Citizen University. During these polarizing times, communities need more than ever the space to grow together in productive, meaningful ways. ‘A Civic Event’ brings together diverse community members to experience art, music, food, poetry, a relevant civic message, and impactful dialogue. Participants leave feeling engaged and empowered. We create space to share new perspectives. With these events, we also create space that encourages our community to find ways to connect intentionally with each other. Our themes this last fiscal year were voting, civic responsibility, gifts, and civil rights.
On an annual basis, we will host the National Civics Bee, our first time being this past year. We partner with the US Chamber Foundation, and this past year, we also partnered with a neighboring chamber to promote our respective bees and sponsorships. The bees feature young people, grades 6-8, competing to demonstrate their civic love and fortitude, with intentions to revitalize a passion and appreciation for civic matters. We believe that civic knowledge fosters broader civic engagement, including community service, activism, and participation in local governance. The Chamber Foundation serves our communities through advocacy, integrity, resources, and connection. Hosting these Civic Bees is an exciting and compelling way to energize our youth and neighbors to elevate their awareness of civic issues and increase their civic engagement.
An interesting component that our Foundation added this year, which we will continue to implement going forward, is an Interview Skills Clinic where our local bee finalists gather to gain insights and practice their final essay topics for the state bee. Students practice with local educators and business owners to gain traction in delivering and presenting the community issue they find most compelling. The Interview Skills Clinic was so successful that 5 of our Interview Clinic participants (shared between two chambers) made it to the finals and took the top 3 spots. The second-place winner in our local bee took first at state, and we believe the Interview Clinic was instrumental in helping garner that win.
The impact of our work is an increased level of interest and engagement in our advocacy efforts, which provide more information for citizens to make better, more precise decisions on voting matters. Heading into a contentious election season, we know that our work to get people to connect across party lines and differences is practical at dispelling preconceived notions. The more people share as neighbors, the less hostile they will be as voters. Between increasing civic knowledge in the community and fostering experiences of collaboration and connection, we witness more social cohesion, more building of social capital, and more informed decision-making.
According to the Arizona Department of Education, the Arizona Civics Test, required for high school graduation, indicates that many students struggle with basic civics concepts. The test is based on questions from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization civics questions, and students must answer at least 60 out of 100 questions correctly to pass. Recent assessments indicate that many students are not meeting this benchmark. Arizona is not alone; nationally, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that eighth graders' civics scores have decreased, reflecting a broader issue with civics education across the country. Research shows that only 1 in 3 Americans could pass a Citizenship Test.
This lack of civics knowledge can lead to a disconnection from civic duties and a weaker understanding of democratic principles, crucial for active and informed participation in the community and governance.
Additionally, research shows that when a democracy is healthy, people are healthy, proving that civic participation is vital to our well-being in more ways than one.
Addressing this gap in civic knowledge is essential to ensure that young people are prepared to engage as responsible citizens and contribute positively to their communities and the nation. Strengthening civics education in schools and providing more resources for students and educators can help bridge this knowledge gap. The Gilbert Chamber Foundation is doing its part to bring the National Civics Bee to our students, which encourages, inspires, and elevates students’ civic knowledge and helps to bridge that gap. Through our co-branded civics bees (with our neighboring chamber), we saw over 250 essays entered by middle schoolers declaring the issue they cared about most, ranging from teen violence to open primaries. Through a rigorous but fun process, we prepared two local bees’ winners (8 students) with an Interview Skills Clinic clinching the state title for one of our participating students, with our students taking the top 3 spots.
Here are remarks from the parent of our student who won at state in 2024:
Public speaking and interviews, in particular, can be challenging. It is not something everyone does regularly, so it can be difficult to refine the skills needed to shine. The Foundation’s interview clinic helped Aiden understand what was expected, how to highlight important points of his proposal, and how to practice the essential skills of communicating with an audience. Chambers are important fixtures of our community. They are a resource for the businesses that drive our economy. Ensuring that our future workforce has the education and the civics knowledge to succeed in the workplace is a valuable service to all Arizonans.
The decline in civic knowledge and engagement is a concern because these impact our connection to each other and a common purpose. Because social and civic engagement is foundational to community health, the Gilbert Chamber Foundation is making strides toward improving the quality and opportunity for civic engagement.
We believe that our efforts to raise awareness of civic education promote a shared understanding of national values, history, and institutions, which in turn build a sense of community and national identity, fostering social cohesion.
Civic engagement contributes to a stable and predictable political environment, which is beneficial for economic growth, stability, and overall health of a community. By engaging our youth and our citizens (including political candidates) in our initiatives for civic engagement, we are seeing an uptick in participation in our chamber foundation’s activities, and this is one way we are measuring the efficacy of programming.
The Gilbert Chamber Foundation’s mission is dedicated to advancing the quality of life in Gilbert through education, leadership, and community enhancement. Through increasing opportunities for quality civic engagement, we are educating our community to advance our community’s overall health and well-being. We believe we must be brave enough to have conversations that matter and that it is our job and privilege to host these conversations as a steward of connection.