When it comes to civic health, Georgia is more than a little anemic, Amir Farokhi, executive director of the nonprofit Georgia Forward, told members of the Savannah Downtown Business Association Wednesday at the group’s monthly luncheon.
According to the first-ever Georgia Civic Health Index, released this year by Georgia Forward in collaboration with several other organizations, the state has lower-than-average rates of participation across the majority of civic health indicators.
For example, Georgia ranks 34th among states in volunteering, 40th in charitable giving, 36th in attendance at public meetings, 41st in voter registration and 38th in voter turnout.
Why is civic health important? According to the index, research suggests a community’s civic health is strongly linked to its economic resilience, among other things.
“Can you guess the two groups in the state that are the least engaged from a civics perspective?” Farokhi asked.
The answer: Those with a high school education or lower and those born in 1981 or later.
“The Millennials aren’t just less engaged — many of them aren’t engaged at all,” he said.
To combat this, Georgia Forward, whose mission is to improve the state by engaging business, government and civic leaders to address policy challenges and collaborate on solutions, has created a program it calls Young Gamechangers.
The annual program brings together 25 to 30 young leaders and innovators from across the state to tackle a specific challenge. The six-month program is designed to give the state’s young people an opportunity work collaboratively to bring their diverse skills to the table to help solve a problem.
“We just wrapped up our first class, which was focused on rural Georgia, specifically the town of Americus, which has had problems keeping its young professionals from leaving town to pursue other opportunities,” Farokhi said.
The group, which included Savannahian Denise Grabowski, looked at the town’s assets and issues and came up with a series of suggestions for addressing the problem.
“For me, it was a great opportunity to work with a really diverse group of young people from all over the state,” said Grabowski, owner of the Savannah firm Symbioscity.
An urban planner by trade, Grabowski said the project was “right up my alley, although it was interesting to apply what I do every day to a totally different setting.”
Grabowski, who was named to Georgia Trend Magazine’s “Top 40 under 40: Georgia’s Best and Brightest” list in 2009, said she would recommend the Young Gamechangers program as a way to get involved and bring that civic zeal back home.
“It’s a great opportunity for anyone who wants to get involved and work with other like-minded people.”
ABOUT GEORGIA FORWARD
Based in Atlanta, nonprofit Georgia Forward works to engage civic, business, government and academic leaders to find a common vision for Georgia, discuss innovative solutions and foster communication and goodwill among all areas of the state.
ON THE WEB
For more information on Georgia Forward or Young Gamechangers, go to www.georgiaforward.org