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  1. Dale Smith on June 15, 2015 at 11:28 am

    I’ve found that for increasing civic engagement with the younger individuals of my community that I’ve simply needed to start a relationship with them and share my knowledge and the knowledge of others to start conversations.

    My website has come in really handy for that and because of my passion to talk to young people about the issues that are out there, they’ve loved to chat with me and critique or break down the answers of politicians to local-based questions.

    After actually focussing the questions to have answers that would interest young people, I’ve seen website traffic increase from around 50 viewers a week to 400 just by starting up that key conversation and letting young people know if they want to chat about what’s been said that I’m always here to engage with them.

    By letting young people know that adults aren’t actually all that bad, that they’re not all about causing drama and using guns as the actors portray on TV they can find it easier to open up and it doesn’t stop at become a more engaged voter that’s more likely to vote. It continues on with other services like mental, sexual and physical health. You find young people who’re more committed to getting part-time work because they know they can start meaningful discussions with adults around all aspects of their life.

    Democracy as we know it is changing and even the motto of Mother Nature is changing. We’re no longer ‘survival of the fittest’ and we’re seeing youth and young adults create a new motto of ‘Equal ground for all’ where we realise we’re not trying to out do each other, and that each of us are actually dreams and goals of how we want to impact the world and work for the community.

    Does Civic Engagement help impact an individual’s well-being? If you go about it the right way, yes.

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