Did you send testimony?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoxQQNfLPF6/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= This Saturday is a big artists and local business vendors market! Grab something here! Also this org is good too for looking for local businesses. https://makefoodyourbusiness.org/

https://risca.online/ go here for a listing of every art gallery in RI and grant opportunities.

Rishows.com get updated with all the music in the state

The Angels collective which is right above Dash and Nitro coffee

Courtland Club! Real chill and lots of jazz

What do you mean?

Ah your wording threw me off. You mean polarization, or when a topic is turned into a “support this or you’re bad” such as masks. Because pandemic response and public health is political, we have had responses to pandemics before and providing vaccines. You’re right that it was turned into an “issue” rather than being okay let’s put into policy that we will follow the best guidelines for responding to a pandemic. (Which again, is a political act)

If we as a culture practice talking to each other about difficult subjects rather than saying “just never talk about politics or religion” then it would get easier. It’s a skill to be able to have discussions with people. That’s a skill we all need to work on.

Everything in our world was always political. Not talking about it led to assumptions that politics is separate. Now that we’re talking more about it, we can see the nuances of how government and policy affects our everyday lives.

Heres a crazy stastic for yah, in RI, we are number one in the country for frequently speaking to and spend time with friends/family, but rank very low for speaking to friends/family/neighbors about political/social issues and volunteering/participating in groups.

[maybe I should post the graphic in the subreddit as its own post, its very interesting]

we need a strong culture shift to talk to each other more!

I completely agree. Also to note, most 16-18 year olds are pushed to focus on COLLEGE APPLICATIONS. They are stressed the heck out to even think about making a difference. Even then, they can't get invested because they're most likely going to be moving out of state for school. I'm curious how many 18 year olds in RI are transplants or grew up here.

https://www.ncoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/RI_CHI_2022-FINAL.pdf

Further quoting

approximately 42% of respondents agreed that their K-12 civics education prepared them to be active members of their community;

29% indicated they would be extremely or somewhat likely to get involved in issues that affected their community;

Now again, this is where I'm curious about what the kids consider "getting involved" because think about those national news articles about all the kids coming together to out teachers that were sexually harassing other students. Is that "civic involvement" or "fighting against something that affected THEIR community"

https://rihumanities.org/program/ri-civic-health-index/ I'm quoting from this

While the case was dismissed due to lack of precedent, Rhode Island District Court Judge William Smith stated that the case ”does not represent a wild-eyed effort to expand the reach of substantive due process, but rather a cry for help from a generation of young people who are destined to inherit a country which we—the generation currently in charge—are not stewarding well.”

As one outcome of the lawsuit, the Rhode Island Department of Education agreed to establish a civic education task force, currently in formation. Furthermore, in 2021, the Rhode Island State Legislature passed the Civic Literacy Act, which requires all public high school graduates to demonstrate civics proficiency and offers students the opportunity to complete a student-led civics project. Implementation of these initiatives is currently in process, with the potential for current research to inform next steps, and with the final outcomes to be seen.

Both system change and cultural changes are needed. On a system level, make it easy to vote, which RI kinda is good about, the voter info website is very good (could be better about non English languages) we have mail in ballots legalized and early voting. Still need Election Day to be a day off so there’s more accessibility.

The culture shift is a harder thing, it will take time to do that work of convincing people one by one how the systems work, that their vote counts, that they can make informed choices, just like any habit, it will take time and repetition on a community yearly scale.

I will also counter that I know many people who have said voting doesn’t work so I’m going to make change in other ways such as community organizing participating in actions and other stuff outside the legislative electoral system. My response has been always well voting is the bare minimum, it’s something to show up twice a year too. But I do want to highlight that some people have lost faith in government and have been working to strengthen this community outside the system.

Literally walk into any cafe and look at the bulletin board, there’s so many events and activities going on!

I mean, did you see how a group of kids filed a national lawsuit against the state of Rhode island because of the terrible civics education?

Yep! You can register with crossroads or any other such organization as your address. Maybe talk to the coalition for the homeless for more tips. But check out the state website and register to vote.

The thing is we need new Affordable housing. All the housing that gets built is luxury housing, then it pushes out all the people who can’t afford to live in the area. (Worker shortages already happening) literally, all these luxury housing are being built and are empty. They are not a good thing, they are not benefiting anyone.

Man I would love it if there was regular public seating fits a great spot I would sit there and read a book or draw. I never knew it was public! It def should be opened back up to the public

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjWx3hLMKqR/?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=

Submit your testimony to city council to say no to tax breaks for the Superman building!

Do you know who your city councilor is? Also all the mayoral candidates support some kind of alternative police crisis unit. You should reach out to your city councilor about this.

https://www.providenceri.gov/smart-policing-initiative-behavioral-health-response-team/

There’s a program being developed specifically to have mental health professionals respond to crisis events instead of police.

https://www.providenceri.gov/smart-policing-initiative-behavioral-health-response-team/

https://www.providenceri.gov/city-of-providence-announces-next-steps-in-creation-of-behavioral-health-crisis-response-program/

City Councilor Nirva LaFortune worked with community to create the alternative crisis response program. I believe this is what you’re looking for?

It’s quite small but still worth a day trip! It’s wonderful learning new things about familiar places.