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The importance of civic engagement in creating an equitable society
169 Plays1 year ago
In this episode of the GenZers to rise! Podcast we will be discussing the importance of civic engagement in creating a thriving and equitable society.
Our guest, Jacqueline Azah, an activist, speaker and journalist, shares her insights and experiences on how civic engagement can promote social cohesion, strengthen democratic institutions, and create a more resilient community.
We also discuss ways in which individuals can get involved in civic engagement, the impact it can have on individuals and society, and the challenges associated with it. Stay tuned for a thought-provoking and insightful conversation on civic engagement.
In this episode we cover:
- What are some examples of civic engagement activities? (1)
- How can civic engagement help to strengthen communities? (3)
- What role does civic engagement play in democracy? (3)
You can connect with John Mendez at https://lnkfi.re/jacquelineazah
Follow GenZers to rise! https://go.changemakerz.org/follow
Episode's page https://podcast.changemakerz.org/jacquelineazah
Access exclusive content on the ChangemakerZ app at https://app.changemakerz.org
Produced by Vasilis Skarleas
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone, I'm Kennedy. And I'm Vasiles. We run Changemaker-Z, a student-run initiative that aims to empower, educate, and connect Gen Zers interested in entrepreneurship. We interview teenagers with impactful projects and create resources to help you change the world. If they can't do it, so can you.
00:00:23
Speaker
On this podcast, we discuss the logistics of creating different types of projects with Gen Zers who have already done it. We will leave our social media and website information in the description.
Understanding Civic Engagement
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the Zanzist Rights Podcast, where we'll be discussing the importance of civic engagement in creating a thriving and equitable society. Our guest, Zakuin Azach, an activist, speaker, and generalist, serves her insights and experiences on how civic engagement can promote social cohesion, strengthen democratic institutions, and create a more resilient community.
00:01:06
Speaker
We also discuss ways in which individuals can get involved in civic engagement, the impact it can have on individuals and society, as well as the challenges associated with it. Stayed here and for throughout provoking and insightful conversation on civic engagement. Haida Dakhlin, nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you too. Hello, everybody.
00:01:29
Speaker
We are so excited to have you on the show and talk for this amazing subject. And I've never listened to that before. And I'm so excited to be here with you today.
Civic Engagement's Role in Society
00:01:40
Speaker
To begin with, what is civic engagement and why is it important? So civic engagement is civic means like community, people, society. So civic engagement means participation,
00:01:57
Speaker
addressing issues of public concern. And when you break those engagement, you could break it down into different types of categories, which could be social entrepreneurship, service learning, activism, community service, philanthropy. It's all the different things that you can do to be civically engaged and to better your society.
00:02:21
Speaker
Hmm. So it's these, all these different things on the same time. And like, I was always wondering, now that we have a better understanding of the subject, like how can civic engagement can help to strengthen, you know, the communities? Like how can we associate, you know, all the things that you like presented to us with, you know, an engagement and engaged community?
00:02:50
Speaker
I think the beautiful thing about civic engagement is that you can break it down into different sectors of society. So somebody who may not be studying activism or political science or any of those service-based majors in school doesn't mean that they cannot be a part of civic engagement. So you can engage your community in your business. You can engage your community and you'd be an activist. You can be a public worker.
00:03:19
Speaker
Anything that you choose to go into to better the life of people would be civic engagement, which is my favorite thing because you can do so many different things, regardless of who you are, where you come from, or what your interests are. Because if you think about it, artists can be civically engaged because you can better the mental health and the happiness of people, which would go into mental health.
00:03:43
Speaker
You are 100% right, and I love this approach, actually. It's fact that civic engagement creates a more resilient community. When people are actively involved in their communities, they're better equipped to respond to challenges and crisis in the end, isn't it? Yes, 100,000%. Not only do you have the community to do so, meaning when a crisis happens, it's not all on your shoulders. Because when you're civically engaged, you're building a community of people who
00:04:12
Speaker
know what the working components of like the larger machine are to basically have a well-running society. Totally, totally. So let's dive deeper into this object. What role does civic engagement play in democracy? I feel like democracy is civic engagement because the idea of democracy that everybody gets a say
00:04:36
Speaker
in what we decide. And so when you think about that in terms of civic engagement, in order for everybody to have a say, you have to speak up. You have to vote. You have to talk to people about what you believe in. You have to advocate. And civic engagement are roles and actions that you can do in order to make your opinion on what you want be known. So if you're not civically engaged, it's not democracy. It's you're just letting the government and the powers that be
00:05:04
Speaker
decide for you, because regardless if you are civically engaged or not, the decisions are going to be made. So might as well you have a say in what happens.
00:05:12
Speaker
So this means that like democracy represents, you know, the definition of civic engagement seems like we act, we are the catalysts of like the people that we select, that we vote for them. And then these are the people that they decide, you know, the state for the country, for what's going on in general.
00:05:37
Speaker
So we could say that civic engagement strengthens democratic institutions. Oh, 100,000 percent because without it, especially I think about this in America too, and I'm sure many countries can relate to this. Many of the rights that we enjoy are things that had to move and fought for. So like the freedom to love who we want, the freedom of bodily autonomy. It was people who said, no, we want that and had to fight for it for us to get it.
00:06:05
Speaker
So if we stop now and we're not fighting for the new right to the new generations, then there will be no democracy because we're not inserting ourselves into the institution. Yeah, we are going to lose like, you know, these values that they exist in the institution. And I could say that in a democracy, the power rests with the people and their ability to participate in the political process ensures that the government is accountable to the citizens it serves.
00:06:36
Speaker
So now that we have taken this approach to serving engagement, how can we, the individuals, get involved? I love this question because I think when people first feel the urge, the fire in them to want to go into the world and to do something to better it, I think a lot of people are usually one-track minded. They usually think of, okay,
00:07:01
Speaker
be it government, be it the government, be it police officer, but what they don't realize is that there's so many ways to be civically engaged. And as technology becomes so much more vast and we have access to literally becoming influencers and things and jobs that we have never heard before, there are so many ways to impact. So I think first would be not to force yourself to do something that you think is the pinnacle of civical engagement. You could just start where you
00:07:28
Speaker
where you like at. Start where you like. Start at your strengths. If you're a person where you're not too much of a great public speaker, I would not recommend you to go be a politician, you know? So if you don't like public speaker but you're more quiet and you're more artsy, you can draw pictures and send them to children and orphanages or you can do what, take your skills and use your skills to better somebody's day, no matter
00:07:53
Speaker
how many people you're impacting, even if it's just one person, you're civically engaging with the community and you're bettering it, you're teaching somebody something, you're making somebody feel something. Yeah, like applying your skills so that you can create an impact, whatever this impact can be. So this is going to be a contribution to the civic engagement and to have a better society in the end, we could say.
00:08:22
Speaker
I agree. So do you think that civic engagement can be used to address social justice issues?
Addressing Social Justice through Civic Engagement
00:08:30
Speaker
And if yes, how? 100,000%. And I think let's take a look at anything. Give me any issue happening in the world right now. Let's say you think that Ukraine's war is an issue?
00:08:46
Speaker
Yes, for sure. I definitely agree that Ukraine's war is an issue and what's happening to the Ukrainians is incredibly unfair. And a way that we can be civically engaged to help that or to sway what we want the outcome to be in that is a couple of different things. One thing I know is that there are refugees in a lot of countries from Ukraine who are in need of
00:09:12
Speaker
items who are in need of finances and place to stay and new life and as your civic engagement you can create care packages for Ukrainian refugees. If you want to go on more of the government sector you can contact the UN Council for Kids for like for youth and you can see how you can volunteer become a part of the conversation to advocate for Ukrainians. There are so many ways that you can
00:09:37
Speaker
address an issue like that. I think when we see, when we hear it, it sounds so daunting and scary, like a war, like, but when you just relax and you think about it on, and you break it down into little tiny pieces, there are ways that you can use your skills to better the lives of those people who are going through that.
00:09:55
Speaker
I understand what you're saying. I think that I've been in front of an example, a real example. There is a software company based in Ukraine. It's a Ukrainian software company that sells software to millions of people worldwide.
00:10:13
Speaker
And from the beginning of the war, they created an institution so that, no, a foundation. That's the best word. They created a foundation so that people can donate and share their stories. So it's a double-sided foundation.
00:10:32
Speaker
Cranians come to share their stories, voices and people like the community of the company that it already existed can donate money or other things like drugs so that they can help with the health system, things like that through the institution.
00:10:57
Speaker
And the company refuses to change their headquarters to any other country because they strongly believe that, number one, they will solve the problem as soon as possible. Number two, they refuse to leave their country. Number three, they don't want to lose their values from where they started from. And I think that this is an active example of what we are discussing right now.
The Impact of Civic Engagement on Society
00:11:28
Speaker
Yes, I 100% agree with that. And another way for civic engagement could help that is public pressure. As we know, one thing about governments and institutions is that, especially in democratic societies, the people have the power and we just have to use it. A lot of people come out and they speak out for the companies and we support them. We want the government more than likely
00:11:56
Speaker
back off of pressuring them to want to move their headquarters or something of that sort. So I will 100% agree with that example. How can civic engagement help to create a more equitable and vast society in the end? I think the idea of checks and balances for to be civic engaged is to
00:12:23
Speaker
be transparent about things and when you're transparent about things or when there's a standard of transparency that is set, it is easy for everybody to want to know what's going on and when you know what's going on then you can advocate for things to keep going right and you could be able to spot the things that are not going right and you could hold people accountable who are in positions to
00:12:46
Speaker
make sure that they're keeping the promise of what the people want. So as long as there are people at the highest forms of government and society who
00:12:58
Speaker
are being kept in check by the people that they serve, then an equitable society is present and possible. I agree with you. Advocacy is the key here. It increases the effectiveness of advocacy. When individuals come together to advocate for a cause, they can be more effective than if they were working alone. Yes, there's power in numbers. If you notice that every protest you ever go to,
00:13:25
Speaker
and you listen to the chants that they're saying, or you look at the posters that people make, that is exactly what's on the posters. Yeah, that's true. They also can pool their resources, share knowledge and expertise, and create a more powerful and couple-link message in the end that can be shared through posters, social media, every possible main that exists, I think.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yes. Another question that I had in mind when I was thinking about saving engagement subject was like, if we could sum up some of the strongest points of saving engagement importance, which could be? The most and strongest points, I would say education. Because when you think of concepts like fascism and authoritarianism, the first thing that is usually
00:14:20
Speaker
strikes from the people is education, the power and the right to learn and to know things. So I think I'll have to say the engagement is we need educators.
00:14:32
Speaker
for sure. And then we also need advocates. We need the people who are going to be like, no, that's not right. We don't need to do that. So we definitely need advocates. And we need, um, I would say too, like fundraising and philanthropy. I don't think that there's anything that could happen without money in this world as unfortunately, as unfortunate as it is. So we need people who are good at fundraising, people who are good at community organizing and crowdfunding and meet those people. And then we need the,
00:15:01
Speaker
Innovators, we are the people who are readily building and creating new software, new systems, new technology to keep the movements current. And then we need the people. We need everybody who is a part of like the smaller parts that may not get like all of the recognition that they deserve. We need the people who keep it going every single day.
00:15:22
Speaker
100% true. For me, it fosters a sense of civic duty. Civic engagement helps to cultivate a sense of civic duty and responsibility, as you said. When individuals are actively involved in their community, they're more likely to feel a sense of obligation to contribute to the common good and work towards a better future for all.
00:15:48
Speaker
I love how you said that it's a duty. I don't think people see it as a duty like when elections come up or when things aren't right. Personally, nobody is holding you to it. You don't have to do it. But to think of it as a duty and to adopt that is really important and it's necessary to keep an equitable and fair and thriving society.
00:16:11
Speaker
Maybe, I don't know, but I think that young people could think this as a duty, especially if they haven't voted before and it's their first time that they're going to vote. They could see this as an opportunity to express what they really believe that is a solution to a problem, what they really believe that's going to be done in the end.
00:16:36
Speaker
But for older people, maybe it's not the case because it's exactly what you said that, you know, maybe they haven't seen any difference, so they don't see it as a duty. Yes.
Gen Z and Civic Engagement: A Technological Edge
00:16:52
Speaker
In America, and I'm not sure if you heard this term too, we have this term in the organizing community that I'm a part of called intergenerational relations.
00:17:03
Speaker
And I think that's a huge thing, especially if you're going to be a Gen Z organizer. Just being Gen Z in general, like other generations understanding us. Because I think other generations look at us and they're like these crazy kids. Like they never shut up. They say everything on their mind. They don't stand for anybody talking to them bad. They quit a job if they don't like it. Maybe they don't accept a no.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, we don't accept no's like we're just the crazy generation and we don't understand why they are so well what we deem to be complacent like oh why don't you guys want more and something that I've been learning by just like you know trying to see the other side of things is that the older generation I feel had to do a lot of things out of survival like while we are living through times that are politically insane
00:17:55
Speaker
they had to go through times that were also politically insane with just a little bit more roughness to it because of all the lack of technology and you know things were just still happening in certain countries at that time. So I bet especially if you come from because I come from immigrant parents so a lot of the things that I see them go through or their thoughts about things come from the fact that a lot of the things that they had to do were out of survival. They had to do you know like if they didn't do what they would
00:18:24
Speaker
lose their lives or they had young children, so they had to do it. And with our generation, a majority of us, or a lot of us,
00:18:35
Speaker
do things out of what we want and what we see for the future because of the sacrifices that they made for us. So I think that once we have that sort of mindset, then we are allowed to give the older people a little bit of grace, but also don't let your, don't, don't let up a little bit. Still light the fire underneath them because they're still the ones who are in office. They're still the ones who are majorly controlling a lot of the things that we want to change. So while it's okay to give them a little grace for
00:19:04
Speaker
how they think about things, we still need to make sure that they do their jobs.
00:19:09
Speaker
I agree with you and in fact I also believe that every generation had different things happening every single period of time so I think that Denzil is such a different generation because they hadn't to deal with World War II, World War I or things that they impacted people's emotions, societies, economies so hard
00:19:39
Speaker
But Gen Z on the other hand has seen all, you know, the evolution of all the technology. Even in the older ones, they have seen the whole evolution, but sometimes they are notable to apply every knowledge to, you know, to its limits, to bypass their boundaries. And this is how Gen Z is different from the other generations. Like, they are using their knowledge
00:20:03
Speaker
and they're trying to find solutions to existing problems, something that has never been done from previous generations in the past. Yes, that's totally, totally correct. We are taking the pain and the suffering and the experience from all the other generations and instead of us trying to just get by, I think we as a generation have a certain type of fire to want to create change out of that.
00:20:33
Speaker
100% true. So is there anything else you would like to add to this amazing conversation? No, that is all. I think that this episode comes to its
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:20:44
Speaker
end. Thank you for tuning into this episode of our podcast, and we hope that you will join our discussion of civic engagement and learn something new about how it can help to create a more just and equitable society. Moreover, I would like to thank Zach Lane for being with me today.
00:21:01
Speaker
Thank you so much. Thank you. It was an amazing conversation. I know, I agree. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and leave us a rating or review. Join us next time for another insightful conversation on a topic that matters. But until next time, do not forget to change the world. Bye!
00:21:34
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. We had such a great time. Make sure to leave us a review. If you want more Changemakers content, you can follow us on Instagram at ginsears to rise and on Facebook at changemakerseat.