WEST FARGO — Just a day after the West Fargo School District's $147 million bond referendum failed after poor voter turnout, a new civic group hoping to educate and bring the public together for civic issues launched its first in-person event on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
The group called Civic West hopes to increase civic learning, engagement and participation in West Fargo. It's patterned after CivicLex, a nonprofit in Lexington, Kentucky that focuses on building "civic health" in their community.
Civic West was recently founded by a group of residents who formed a steering committee chaired by Kathi Schwan and Lana Rakow.
"It fills a gap between traditional media and the things that go on in a community that you need to know about," Rakow said.
Schwan and Rakow said while the group is modeled after CivicLex, Civic West will not follow all tenants of CivicLex, but it gives them a model to look to for examples.
The low voter turnout on Tuesday for the West Fargo School District bond referendum is an example of where Civic West would like get involved in the future by helping educate residents about voting and issues at elections, Schwan said.
"We want to get students involved, too," Schwan said. "I think it's a great opportunity to get them involved."
CivicLex founder Richard Young was scheduled to speak at Wednesday's event but fell ill. He still spoke to the group via video about his work.
Young said CivicLex focuses on three principles that should be addressed at the local level, where citizens tend to trust their local leaders and can create change.
ADVERTISEMENT
For one, the Kentucky nonprofit focuses on civic health, which measures the strength of a community's engagement, connectedness and its residents' ability to work together to address challenges and improvements to quality of life, Young said.
CivicLex also looks to build civic knowledge, such as how government works and the history of a community.
"There is a huge knowledge deficit in our nation," Young said. He also addressed the low percentage of people who trust mass media to report news accurately.
Civic cohesion is a sense of belonging and unity among community members, while civic faith is the trust and belief in the principles of a democratic foundation, he said.
"We think it can really fill the gap in some of these issues," Young said.
When it started out in 2017 with a focus on education, CivicLex found that information alone was not leading to positive outcomes. In 2019, CivicLex shifted to "civic transformation projects" such as providing civic education, doing local news and reporting, holding workshops and gathering people for relationship and bridge-building workshops.
"What we found is that this multi-faceted approach really works," Young said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Examples of that approach include:
- Publishing a budget guide for the city.
- Attending budget meetings and publishing updates in an email newsletter.
- Creating a searchable budget database online and then hold budget workshops that bring staff, elected officials and residents together.
In the Lexington County area, Young said CivicLex was able to attract about 5,000 people to its events.
The area has seen an increase in contested city council races and the development of at least six new city-wide advocacy organizations across the political spectrum, he said.
Young said the group has also seen changes to how the city processes its budget, surveys residents and the strategies it uses for engagement.
"CivicLex has never endorsed a candidate, we will never," Young said. "We are not an advocacy organization."
About two dozen residents attended the inaugural event, including representatives of the city and school district.
"You've given us a bunch to chew on this evening," longtime resident Frank Lenzmeier said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mayor Bernie Dardis said anytime organizations or citizens want to engage with city government, "it's a wonderful thing."
"Everything about it is positive as long as stay in the lanes, and it doesn't become politicized, I think that is important," he added.
For more information or to get involved with Civic West, email civicwest@gmail.com or online at the website www.civicwest.info.
The Trust Project
