Promotion of Civic Engagement with the Family Leadership Training Institute

Abstract

In this efficacy study, both quantitative and qualitative data were used to gauge the effects of the Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) on civic knowledge and empowerment, civic engagement, and community health. The sample of 847 FLTI participants and 166 comparison adults completed pretest and posttest surveys. Medium to very large short-term effects were observed in civic literacy, empowerment, and engagement. Results mapping interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of FLTI graduates (n = 52) to assess long-term (M = 2.73 years) program impact. Most FLTI graduates (86%) sustained meaningful, sometimes transformative, levels of civic engagement after program completion. This engagement involved multiple forms of leadership, most often advocacy, program implementation, and media campaigns; 63% of graduates directed at least some of their activities to marginalized populations. Content analyses of graduates' civic (capstone) projects and results mapping story maps indicated that 81-90% of community activities aligned with public health priorities. Thus, one promising means to promote community health is to empower families to develop leadership skills, become engaged in civic life, and forge connections with diverse constituents.

The Impacts of College Students’ Civic Responsibility on Civic Engagement via Online Technology: The Mediations of Civic Learning and Civic Expression

“…OCEX learning can not only influence college students' civic responsibility about the diverse situations of disadvantaged groups to help them improve their living conditions via online technology (Hollstein & Smith, 2020;Hylton, 2018) but also support them to engage with social partners in the online community to conduct social action plans and actions together for college students (Keegan, 2021;MacPhee et al, 2017;Middaugh, 2019). Therefore, the researchers form the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 3 (H3): OCEX mediates the relationship between OCR and OCEN.…”