On Sunday, May 6, 2012, Mathews Center staff attended Alabama Public Television’s “Teacher Town Hall” at the Alabama School of Fine Arts Theatre in downtown Birmingham. Dr. Shelley Stewart, founder of the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation and keynote speaker at the Mathews Center’s “Our Community, Our Future” event, served as moderator. The Town Hall gathered teachers of all [...]
The Mathews Center is excited to announce that the Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) public issue for the 2012 – 2013 project cycle is bullying! Over the past year, documentaries, websites, advocacy groups, nightly news segments, and conferences/summits have raised a significant amount of public awareness around the bullying issue – leading to an outcry for [...]
On Thursday evening, April 19, 2012, the David Mathews Center for Civic Life sponsored the unveiling of the Alabama Civic Health Index (ACHI) at an event entitled “A Conversation on Alabama’s Civic Health featuring Dr. Robert Putnam.” The event was held at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in the Joseph M. Farley Auditorium. [...]
On Tuesday, April 10, 2012, two Jean O’Connor-Snyder undergraduate interns at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) facilitated a deliberative discussion on the documentary film “Concrete, Steel, and Paint.” The project is entitled “Film and Deliberation,” and it is sponsored by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and the UAB Global and Community [...]
April 3, 2012, twelve citizens from Auburn/Lee County, Alabama gathered for a forum at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities. Forum participants represented educational institutions, local government, the non-profit sector, and the community. Sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, the City of Auburn, the Community [...]
On Thursday, March 29, 2012, seventeen representatives from Alabama Public Television, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and a number of their community partners participated in a lively moderator development workshop sponsored by the Mathews Center at the American Village in Montevallo, Alabama. Many of the participants are collaborating on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate Project. [...]
On the heels of the Mathews Center’s “Our Community, Our Future” event, which unveiled the Center’s AIF 2010 – 2011 dropout report, a group of Mathews Center staff and Jean O’Connor-Snyder interns participated in the GradNation Summit in Washington D.C. The GradNation Summit, sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the Alliance for Excellent Education, Civic [...]
On Saturday, March 24, 2012, nearly 30 citizens gathered at the Davis Center in Birmingham, AL for a forum on childhood obesity. The participants represented numerous schools and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) within the Birmingham area. Weighing the Options: How Can We Encourage Healthy Weights Among America’s Youth?, an issue guide prepared by the West [...]
Tuesday, March 6, 2012, nearly eighty citizens gathered for the unveiling of the Mathews Center’s 2010-2011 Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) comprehensive report (available digitally here!) at an event entitled “Our Community, Our Future: The Role of Citizens in Solving the High School Dropout Situation.” The event, held at Auburn University-Montgomery’s Taylor Center from 10a.m.-1:30p.m., boasted [...]
Students, faculty, and community members gathered on the evening of February 27, 2012 in the University of Alabama’s Biology Building for a keynote address delivered by T.R. Reid, reporter, author, and documentary filmmaker. The event, co-sponsored by the Mathews Center and New College, engaged the topic of disparities in health care. Reid’s newest book, The [...]
