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Civic Engagement Certificate

Learn how to organize your community for positive, social change

The Civic Engagement Certificate helps undergraduates organize and mobilize around difference policy efforts. Students learn by doing with the goal of making an impact in local communities. As a Civic Engagement Certificate student you will: 

  • Work on projects with the local community 
  • Solve social challenges, not just talk about them 
  • Connect with other socially engaged students 
  • Learn leadership skills for social change 
  • Gain leadership experience to apply for jobs, scholarships, and grad school

For questions about the program, contact Funmi Ojikutu at funmilayo.ojikutu@northwestern.edu or call 847-491-5383.

Apply to Civic Engagement (SESP 195)

Coursework

The “first-year” certificate classes include: 

  • SESP 195-1 (Fall) - Participatory policymaking.
    • Policy implementation involves more than just identifying and researching options, policymakers must, consider design program design, costs & sustainability; political feasibility, and building political support.  In this class, you will learn how to design policy for implementation through Northwestern’s Participatory Budgeting process.
  • SESP 195-2 (Winter) - Participatory budgeting.
    • Democracy gives limited opportunities for citizens to influence decision-making.  In this class you will learn to implement open democracy innovations, that are more inclusive, more representative, and lead to better policy outcomes, by implementing a campus-wide participatory budgeting process, where community decides how to spend $1000 to address climate change.
  • SESP 195-3 (Spring) - Organizing, gathering & policy implementation for social change.
    • How do we motivate people to take action? In this class, you will learn the techniques of relational organizing (canvassing, one-on-ones, public narrative), designing civic gatherings (Civic Saturdays) that move people to action to build social movements.  You will also oversee policy implementation of community development projects selected in the participatory budgeting process. 
      Students must complete an interest form and interview to be admitted to any of the first-year courses. 

“Second-year” certificate classes include 2 quarters:

  • SESP 295 a & b - Leadership Studio.
    • Learning organizing requires building a real organization. Students accepted to the certificate program will further develop their organizing skills by taking a leadership role on the executive board of Open Democracy Northwestern (undergraduate club).  Leaders will develop strategy, train club members, manage operations.  Leaders will receive weekly coaching from instructors. 
Students must apply to earn the civic engagement certificate after completing the SESP 195 coursework and interview with Open Democracy Evanston executive board and course instructor.

Example Project: Evanston Participatory Budgeting Process

In 2023, certificate students implemented Evanston’s first Participatory Budgeting process that allowed community members to decide how to spend $3m to improve the community.

Certificate students:

  • Facilitated 12 idea collection events that collected 1282 ideas from 302 community members
  • Worked with 50 community members on issues such as environment, affordable housing, health, education, and community development to develop 14 proposals
  • Ran a “get out the vote campaign” that lead to a voter turnout of over 6600 (8% of Evanston) – one of the highest turnouts for participatory budgeting in the US. 
  • Developed 5 of the 7 winning proposals that received $3m in funding including:

Mental Health First Aid Training ($50,000)

Provide mental health first-aid training (MHFA) to public service employees such as teachers, police, firefighters, and government staff to respond to mental health challenges with greater care, knowledge, and experience.

Funding for Activities & Educational Support for Marginalized Students ($700,000)

Provide funding for students in grades 3-8 for programming and camps and in grades 9-12 for post-graduate planning, to improve positive outcomes for students to close the achievement and opportunity gap for racially marginalized students.

Evanston Urban Farm ($350,000)

The 1-acre Evanston urban farm will grow healthy, nutritious food in Evanston to be distributed free or at a low cost to food-insecure households and communities and eventually can become self-funding.

Affordable Housing Subsidy ($810,000)

The affordable housing subsidy will subsidize owner-occupied apartment landlords to reduce rental prices and promote housing affordability across Evanston.

Small Business Grants ($150,000)

Grants of $14,500 will be made available to 10 small businesses in Evanston.

For Community Organizations

The Civic Engagement Certificate is seeing community organizations for future partnerships. If your community organization would benefit from working with Northwestern students, visit our webpage for community partners.