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About The Center
The David Mathews Center for Civic Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. The Center’s purpose is to foster infrastructure, habits, and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision making. The Mathews Center is focused on how citizens create political will and sustain innovative community decisions.
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Principal Community Efforts for 2010
Pilot communities in Birmingham, Anniston, Collinsville, Prattville, Elba, and Chatom are conducting community forums addressing what decisions its citizens have to make and sustain in their communities about these concerns:
What decisions do citizens have to make and sustain in their communities about these concerns?
- What Is the 21st Century Mission for Our Public Schools?
- Preparing Today’s Kids for Tomorrow’s Jobs
- Too Many Children Left Behind: How Can We Close the Achievement Gap?
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Signature Principles of Operation
- Non-partisan, wholeness of examination, not piecemeal solutions.
- Not an advocate, engagement across differences, not persuasion of a particular view.
- Non-directive, coaching and enabling community decision making, not consulting.
- Cooperative, partnerships with other institutions and networks, not competition.
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Signature Assumptions
- Political problems are primarily problems of working relationships.
- The biggest challenge to any community is the capacity of its citizens to make effective decisions together across the range of issues they face.
- Civic life in a democracy means citizens must take responsibility for making hard choices and must develop infrastructure and practices that enable them to do so.