ENGAGING CITIZENS AND LEADERS IN NEW WAYS

Citizens for Global Solutions launched two new programs in Fall 2004, both designed to help advocates of cooperative U.S. global engagement communicate more effectively with elected leaders and the public.

Reframing U.S. Global Engagement Project

The Senate's failure to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which enjoyed broad bipartisan support, illustrates the increasingly frequent problems that proponents of cooperative U.S. engagement in the international system have in making their case on Capitol Hill. 

In light of this, Citizens for Global Solutions, with support from the Connect US Fund, coordinated an effort to develop a new framework for talking about global issues with Congress.  By bringing together diverse actors to discuss the current problems they face in communicating with Congress about international issues, the Reframing U.S. Global Engagement project will develop a new set of common frames for NGOs and activists.

+CLICK HERE to read about the results of this research.

U.S. in the World Trainings

U.S. in the World: Talking Global Issues with Americans - A Practical Guide, published by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation and the Aspen Institute's Global Interdependence Initiative, is an important new tool in helping proponents of cooperative U.S. global engagement make their case to the U.S. public. 

Citizens for Global Solutions, with the assistance of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, is conducting trainings on the guide with our nationwide network of grassroots Partners Groups, House and Senate Staff, citizens' groups and foreign affairs professionals in key cities throughout the U.S., and partners in NGO networks.

+ Congressional Staffers: Learn how to schedule a training today!

IM4HR: Instant Messaging for Human Rights

On May 6, 2005, Citizens for Global Solutions in collaboration with The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law convened a workshop to explore how to most effectively talk to the public about human rights issues. The workshop was an outgrowth of recent discussions in which those concerned with civil rights, human rights, international law, and US global engagement identified the need for a collaborative approach to getting our messages heard.

This full-day interactive session involved advocates from over 15 organizations with interests as diverse as immigration policy, environmental protection, penal reform, religious action, homelessness, issues related to the Holocaust, and human rights in general. The advocates explored ways of framing issues that make their messages more effective and tie them into a larger movement. The messaging research from US in the World – Talking Global Issues with Americans served as a cornerstone in the process.

+CLICK HERE to read a copy of the outcome document.

Updated January 11, 2006