#100, OTOH Shana Chaplin, Program Director for Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, Part 1, Feb 13 2025

Shana Chaplin, Program Director for the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute in Arkansas, speaks with Glen and April, focusing on the state of civic health in Arkansas. Born to an Arkansas family but raised in an international setting, Shana's experience and training that prepare her for expertise in civic engagement are traced. We then discuss the Civic Index, which in Arkansas has shown us to be in many ways very low in the country in civic involvement and awareness. In a move to help improve this status in our state, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the Clinton School, and other organizations worked together to plan how to address our state's deficiencies in this area through the Civic Arkansas initiative (https://rockefellerinstitute.org/programs/civic-arkansas/). Various community partners have joined in this initiative, including Braver Angels Arkansas. Shana provides concrete explanations and examples of civic engagement and why it is important in a democracy, while sharing findings from initial efforts by the Civic Arkansas initiative. She describes various similarities and differences across variables such as age or rural/urban settings. We explore with Shana what is being done now with partner groups as part of the initiative. Impediments to progress in civic education, including some aspects of the current media environment, limited public spaces for citizen engagement, and other factors, are described.  Shana also argues that democracy requires participation and that the decline in citizen involvement in America has important implications for the health of our democratic form of government. Some of the tools that are already being offered via the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute to address these concerns are outlined, along with challenges still needing to be addressed.