A Citizen’s Experience
Birmingham Public Library, Ala.
Innovation Synopsis
ACE (A Citizen’s Experience) is a City of Birmingham initiative with the central goal of getting residents directly involved and engaged with their local municipal government. ACE is a city-wide leadership initiative aimed at bringing everyday citizens together for a deeper understanding of how the city supports civic engagement.
Challenge/Opportunity
Birmingham has 99 independent neighborhoods within 23 unique communities in which the library system has 19 library locations. ACE presented a historic opportunity for the library system to partner directly with City Hall to host learning opportunities for 600 citizens during a seven-week impactful community and civic engagement event.
Key Elements of Innovation
During the seven-week citizen course we were excited to show and tell the ACE citizens about all areas of government and our library operations, programs, services and partnerships. Six groups of citizens also learned about city government based on five key areas of focus during seven weeks of intensive civic engagement.
Achieved Outcomes
Five BPL regional library locations supported and hosted the largest community engagement effort in the recent history of the City of Birmingham. An orientation, seven-week course and a graduation were hosted for 600 ACE citizens. Harwood methodology was used for turning outward to engage citizens for active engagement by making engagement about the active citizen experience.