The United States is divided by numerous issues. People are increasingly at odds with each other, and the process of making important change is difficult, if not impossible.
It is in this political climate that Mercer County Community College recently unveiled a multi-pronged program to combat the situation by educating citizens and empowering them to become leaders within their communities.
The college has teamed up with The Citizens Campaign, a Metuchen-based nonprofit organization that works to ensure that discourse can be helpful, not harmful, and urges that people do not have to be elected officials or stop their advocacy at the ballot box.
The organization’s message is that anyone can fight to make a difference.
One piece of the program is the establishment of a Citizen Leadership Center in partnership with The Citizens Campaign. The purpose of the center, which will be located at MCCC’s James Kerney Campus in Trenton, is to encourage “no-blame problem solving” built on respect and realism.
Another major component is the incorporation of The Citizens Campaign’s Power Civics citizen leadership training school-wide, which will be available through multiple channels in the college and Continuing Education programs.
The college announced the program at a kickoff celebration on Oct. 20, an event that included MCCC President Jianping Wang, professor Ken Howarth, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, officials from The Citizens Campaign, and community activist Darren “Freedom” Green.
Wang said that although conversations with The Citizens Campaign about incorporating the program at MCCC started around five years ago, it has come together at a time when it’s more necessary than ever.
“The world is more divisive, divided and inequality is more rampant than ever before,” Wang said. “The pandemic is pressing all of us to the limit, so looking up to a handful of leaders isn’t going to save all of us, and our planet is heating up faster than ever, and the youth is leading the sustainability movement more than any one of us combined here. So, I am so thrilled that we are finally launching this critical endeavor at the right moment.”
Howarth, a professor of philosophy and the chair of MCCC’s social science department, said in an interview after the kickoff event that the program is underway, but there are some aspects they are still working to get off the ground. “A couple of things haven’t rolled out as quickly as we want because of the pandemic.”
A repeating motif in both Howarth’s interview and the MCCC kickoff are following the “three C’s”—balancing college, career and civics. After years of focusing on the first two points, Howarth reinforces that this initiative is a way to “recommit ourselves to civics, and [MCCC] couldn’t ask for better partners in the Citizens Campaign.”
Piloted through MCCC’s for-credit courses this semester, the training is currently running through the school’s undergraduate political science sections. The specificity is both a way to keep the program “relevant” to the major, as well as within a smaller group. This way, MCCC can more adequately measure its success before expanding across the college’s curricula, Howarth says.
They will be available both as stand-alone courses and as a component to be incorporated alongside the traditional curriculum—the most common usage will be professors using the tools as complementary resources to their state and local government courses, but the teachings will go beyond just those classes. It will help students gain a better understanding of their municipal government as confident citizens who can apply what they learn to the system, no matter their future occupations.
Additionally, students in honor’s programs are able to take part in the training, yet none of them are currently from any political science courses, Howarth says, instead choosing the option as a way to better their respective educational experiences.
MCCC’s Continuing Education program allows non-students to learn the same material without enrolling, as the college offers “lifelong learning activities” that anyone from the area can participate in.
The Power Civics training is also accessible to those in grant-funded programs at the James Kerney campus. Any student or citizen who completes the program earns a citizen leadership certificate and can be integrated into a Civic Trustees group, such as the one based in Trenton. There, they are encouraged to use their newfound expertise to solve local and national issues.
“It’s very practical, and everyone that’s already taken it said that they learned things with it, even people that were relatively familiar with our system and politics,” Howarth says. “I think we found it to be a very great, enabling tool, and we’re looking forward to eventually [setting] loose a swarm out of the college of people who have taken this citizen leadership training to actually engage in various ways, and various dimensions, that they find themselves driven to, [all] with a better toolkit to be more effective.”
No-blame problem solving is a key element of the program. Rob Horowitz, a political and media consultant who serves as The Citizens Campaign’s spokesperson, says that finding answers that satisfy all parties is “both a strategy and a value,” a skill that comes into play when trying to get a plan adopted in front of governing bodies.
“The more you focus on the solution and don’t point your fingers and blame the elected officials or anybody else for the problem, the more effective that communication usually is. People are much more willing to come together around the common ground of solutions,” Horowitz says.
“I think the other piece of the puzzle is that if you look at our politics and government, just nationally and everywhere, we don’t suffer from too little blame,” Horowitz says. “ Part of the gridlock and of the polarization is everybody pointing fingers, calling names, and those get the soundbites and get the coverage, [but] the more we can focus on solutions, and come together around some pragmatic solutions, the better it will be for our democracy overall.”
When approaching those who may disagree, taking the temperature down a bit, Horowitz insists, is a way to benefit the body of politics as a whole. This mindset is what sets the groundwork for The Citizens Campaign’s work, that now, alongside MCCC, hopes to embolden students and residents alike to gain a better grasp of governmental proceedings.
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Grant-funded programs at MCCC’s James Kerney Campus are meant to “lift up” students, assisting those who might face obstacles in their education by giving them equitable access to college, Howarth says.
He describes the training for these fresh-out-of-high-school teenagers as, “building up their enabled and equipped portfolio.”
“They’re starting to emerge into young adulthood in terms of setting them up for college, and also being informed and skilled and active citizens as they move forward,” he adds.
Trenton already has a group of non-partisan Civic Trustees, and those who receive their certificate can join them, helping to better their community. Howarth says he is optimistic that students will join them, and also that other towns in Mercer will, as time goes on, create new Civic Trust units throughout Mercer County.
Darren Freedom Green, a Trenton Civic Trustee and former mayoral candidate, talked at the kickoff event about the benefits of being in an organized group that is cognizant of local, state and federal powers.
“The Civic Trust is an embracing of common, ordinary people who have embraced the reality, the attitude, the mindset of simply doing extraordinary things,” he said. “Things that are tangible within our society, things that are tangible within our community, rooted in civics, which really is the doorway to politics. [It is something that] touches the five social dynamics of education, economics, housing, healthcare and social justice.”
Recently, the Trenton Civic Trustees have finalized the formulation of a volunteer auxiliary police force in tandem with the Trenton Police Department.
The community members involved would be helping the police improve relations and come up with localized solutions. Another initiative the Trustees are behind is creating a school curriculum that exposes young people to civic engagement, giving them a “compass” of the importance.
“We’re behind this, and we’re not just a people, we’re a movement,” Green said.
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MCCC—along with nine other community colleges across the United States— were announced in April as the “first wave” of hosts for Citizen Leadership Centers. Now, that number is up to 11, and The Citizens Campaign has a goal of establishing at least 100 by 2023.
Hoping to produce a “pipeline of principled leaders and practical solutions,” the nonprofit is determined to educate Americans how to best utilize their democratic rights and responsibilities for a better future. Only though teamwork, The Citizens Campaign website maintains, can problem-solving effectively help address pertinent issues without shifting responsibility onto different groups.
The book to be used for reference in the program is “Citizen Power: A Citizen Leadership Manual Introducing the Art of No-Blame Problem Solving” by Harry S. Pozycki, who alongside his wife, Caroline B. Pozycki, founded the Citizens Campaign.
The text is available as a New Jersey-centric version and a national edition, as well as one for high school students hoping to start their supplemental education prior to choosing a community college that may be in participation with The Citizens Campaign.
Harry Pozycki’s creation of the group in 1997 relied on other key players besides just the government law and policy expert. The volunteer board members include former Harvard President Derek Bok. Together, they developed a “power platform” to encourage problem-solving in the political realm.
MCCC aims to expand the program in the spring semester for a wider audience. They want to become a “portal” for anyone in Mercer County or New Jersey to access the links, and Howarth says he hopes that interested parties can visit the college’s site and receive their certificates.
In January, MCCC wants to roll out a “competition” between parts of the college—such as the administration and faculty— to “model what we’re preaching,” says Howarth , as a way to showcase the benefits of the program to the students.
At the college, projects like these are established through their shared governance system, where collaborative decisions are made by way of inclusive voting. Howarth said that it helps identify, plan and implement initiatives that model civic processes.
During the kickoff event, President Wang said that she is appreciative that the center will be focusing on problem-solving.
“This whole world, everybody is blaming everybody else. Too many fingers are pointing at others, and not enough people are willing to say, ‘let’s work together, let’s see what we can do about this,’” she said. “[There’s] not enough rolling up the sleeves, and I see it firsthand on our campus. Our students are doing just that.”
She said that even now, attendees of the college are making phone calls to those who are not vaccinated, encouraging them to get the shot. They are advocating for everyone campus-wide to keep their masks on in the name of public safety, dedication that signals it is time for them and N.J. residents to take charge.
“The future belongs to them, and I selfishly say, I want to see those young leaders become in charge of our nation, so I will be in good hands when I get really old,” Wang said. “I am so thrilled to have this center.”
Reed Gusciora, mayor of Trenton, speaks at the Citizen Leadership Center kickoff event at Mercer County Community College on Oct. 20, 2021.,
