February 22, 2012
The David Mathews Center for Civic Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt corporation. Its purpose is to foster infrastructure, habits, and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision-making. The Center builds on a twenty-year legacy. It was originally the Alabama Institute for Community Leadership Development (1990s). In the early 2000s, the Institute became the Alabama Center for Civic Life as a 501(c)(3) with a broader mission of working with communities on local as well as national issues. In 2008, the Center was renamed to honor the life and work of David Mathews. Mathews is a native of Grove Hill; former President of the University of Alabama; former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; and currently President and Chief Executive Officer of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Dayton, Ohio. The David Mathews Center has several signature programs including: •Alabama Issues Forums (AIF): Working with local communities and National Issues Forums to conduct community forums and provide annual reports to the public on how citizens are thinking on issues in the areas of: Citizens Responsibilities, Education, Economic Development, and Public Health. •Coaching Community Innovation Workshops (CCI): Improving community capacities to make innovative decisions, secure commitments to act together, and learn from experiences. •Teachers’ Institute: Building decision-making skills for young citizens. •Citizens’ Congress: Assembling at American Village in Montevallo, AL and other sites to report research, conduct learning experiences in civic practices, and celebrate community innovations. •Joint Learning Programs with American Village: Creating civic learning programs for the thousands of students and their teachers who visit American Village annually.