Democracy Learning Community Planning Starts!

On Wednesday, February 23, Learning Life held its first of ten anticipated meetings to plan the DC-MD-VA Democracy Learning Community (DMV DLC) in light of challenges of authoritarianism, polarization and participation inequality in the USA. The meetings will culminate in a report to be released by January 2023. The report will envision what a fully developed DLC could look like, drawing on the diversity of ideas and existing solutions to invigorating democracy in communities and metro regions in the USA and abroad. The report will also provide an action plan with specific activities that metro Washington DC stakeholders are willing to move forward with in 2023.

The 2022 planning meetings are the next step in the development of the DMV DLC, following on the first successful step: Learning Life’s Democracy Dinners. The Dinners were launched in June 2019 to bring together metro DC’s many democracy sector professionals to talk in small groups of 8-12 participants about the challenges and possibilities for democracy at local to global levels. The Dinners, conducted via Zoom since the Covid pandemic, are intended to help build a network in support of the development of the DLC, and since 2019, Learning Life has successfully built a growing list of close to 4,000 metro DC democracy professionals we invite to the Dinners, and over 150 people who have attended the Dinners once or more. “Our nation’s capital region is an opportune place to bring diverse, knowledgeable and connected people together to think creatively about how to strengthen democracy at a local level.  In line with Learning Life’s mission to spread learning in everyday life beyond school walls, our intention here is to cultivate a democracy learning community that encourages wider participation, collaboration, and dialogue across our many lines of difference,” said Learning Life’s founder, Paul Lachelier.

To learn more about the DMV DLC, or get involved, click here.