Concept
Messaging Strategy
Video Editing
Civic Learning Week is an annual initiative organized by iCivics and sponsored partly by Carnegie which brings together educators, nonprofits, and public leaders around the shared goal of strengthening civic participation. The challenge was to move beyond talking about civic education as a subject confined to the walls of classrooms and instead show why it matters to everyday democracy life.
As part of Carnegie's efforts to provide communications capacity support to grantees, I sought to use Civic Learning Week as an opportunity to reframe democracy not as something that happens only at the ballot box or inside government buildings, but as a daily practice shaped and strengthened by the everyday choices people make in their communities.
Working closely with our social team, I conceived and produced Democracy Needs Us, a PSA-style video that reframes democracy, not as something fixed, but as something that actively needs us, that needs our collective nurturing, care, and maintenance, that is a something that we imbue with life and meaning everyday. The goal was to create an emotional entry point that inspired people to see democracy as something they already have the power to shape every day.
The video features small vignettes of Americans serving their communities in different ways, each with a different part to play, depicting what a thriving democracy looks like in practice. Through everyday acts of community, service, and participation, the film positioned civic learning as the foundation for stronger communities and more engaged citizens, and ultimately the vehicle through which we can strengthen and preserve American democracy for future generations.
Democracy Needs Us was disseminated as a paid ad on Meta and Youtube to promote Civic Learning Week, expanding awareness of the national initiative. By reframing democracy as something people practice every day, the campaign helped make civic participation, or the work of maintaining democracy, feel less abstract, and more up close and personal.
Catriona Whalley, Social Strategy
Khafra Crooks, Narrative Consultant