Call for Proposals

Trust and Governance: Rebuilding confidence in government through transparency, integrity, and the practice of participatory budgeting as an exercise in fairness and civic responsibility.

Youth and Participation: Cultivating courage and conviction in the next generation through intentional youth civic engagement and active voter participation.

The Virtuous Citizen: Recovering classical and contemporary virtue frameworks, focusing on gratitude, generosity, and the everyday habits that sustain civic life.

Civic Friendship and Humility: Establishing philia politike and humility as the foundations for democratic community and the essential tools for healing civic division.

Empathy and the Common Good: Strengthening moral imagination and empathy to bridge differences and shift cultural focus from individual self-interest to the common good.

Economic Belonging: Promoting the role of local and regional businesses as vital partners in fostering community belonging and democratic stability.

Hospitality and Solidarity: Moving from mere tolerance to active solidarity by practicing the civic virtues of hospitality and welcoming for immigrants and refugees.

Inclusive Belonging: Establishing dignity and respect as the foundations for LGBTQ+ belonging and meaningful inclusion across diverse communities.

Justice and Accessibility: Translating justice into action through disability rights, universal accessibility, and the removal of barriers to full civic participation.

Civic Architecture: Designing neighborhoods and public spaces to intentionally cultivate local leadership and combat the epidemic of loneliness and disconnection.

The Virtues of Healing: Utilizing specific civic virtues to mend social fragmentation and restore a sense of communal connection.

The Virtue and Ethics of Hope: Exploring the psychology, sociology, and ethics of civic hope as a foundational virtue for communal resilience.

Hope-Based Organizing: Prioritizing courage over fear and utilizing storytelling to build moral imagination and sustain long-term community action.

Perseverance Against Injustice: Examining theological and philosophical perspectives on prophetic courage and the ability to speak truth to power in the face of injustice.

The Creative Commons: Empowering artists and creatives as the essential cultivators of civic virtue and the primary architects of communal hope.

Truth and Reconciliation: Integrating racial healing with truth-telling and reparative justice to foster a culture of humility, moral courage, and historical honesty.

Systemic Responsibility: Moving beyond individual action to dismantle structural barriers and ensure fairness and equity in the distribution of community resources.

Community-Led Power: Centering the leadership of Black, Indigenous, and ethnic community organizations as vital drivers of justice and civic life.

Equity in Generosity: Reshaping philanthropy and charitable giving to prioritize justice and better serve historically excluded and marginalized communities.

The Virtuous Anchor Institution: Positioning universities as moral leaders that bridge the gap with historically excluded communities through humility, deep listening, and mutual respect.

Civic Pedagogy and Character: Forming civic character through the integration of service-learning and engaged pedagogy to teach citizenship in a polarized era.

Collaborative Partnerships: Building campus-community relationships rooted in shared responsibility and the collective pursuit of the common good.

The Moral Laboratory: Supporting first-generation students in navigating institutional life while utilizing the campus as a testing ground for the communities we aspire to build.

Servant Leadership and Community Voice: Centering community perspectives in nonprofit design and utilizing trauma-informed organizing to lead with patience, empathy, and restorative presence.

Trust and Mutual Accountability: Building integrity within nonprofit–university–government partnerships through shared accountability and the ethical use of data to measure well-being.

The Virtuous Practitioner: Promoting strategies to prevent burnout and sustain the social sector worker as a compassionate practitioner of civic trust.

Civic Health Workers: Supporting community health workers and frontline organizers as the primary bridge-builders of trust and compassion in local neighborhoods.

Civic Placemaking and Resilience: Viewing the creation of local spaces—and the solidarity shown in the face of displacement—as communal acts of care, rootedness, and civic pride.

The Public Commons: Utilizing libraries, parks, and sacred spaces as democratic arenas where faith communities and public institutions serve as "schools of virtue."

The Marianist and Interfaith Tradition: Practicing interfaith collaboration and the Marianist principles of solidarity and community to engage the common good with humility and grace.

Navigating Faith and Civic Life: Balancing religious conviction with civic responsibility, ensuring that houses of worship foster a deep sense of belonging and integrity in public life.

Digital Citizenship and Truth: Combating misinformation through honesty and moral courage online to counter polarization and rebuild a shared reality.

Ethics and Digital Equity: Ensuring AI and technology-enabled organizing are rooted in trust, transparency, and the pursuit of justice and civic inclusion.

The Foundations of Dignity: Addressing economic insecurity and health disparities as essential steps in restoring civic dignity and the moral foundations of a community.

Resilience and Mental Health: Integrating mental health awareness into the framework of civic hope to sustain engagement in an increasingly complex digital and economic landscape.