Centering Community Colleges in Civic Engagement and Local Deliberation

How can community colleges best support meaningful civic engagement on their campuses and in their broader localities? That was the question New America’s Political Reform program posed to 32 experts in a virtual meeting on June 17, 2025. The participants represented civic organizations, community colleges, and local governments from 17 states across the United States. Together, they shared strategies for how community colleges—as trusted local civic institutions—could host collaborative or deliberative governance initiatives, which give students and residents a chance to shape policymaking. In particular, the conversation concentrated on citizens’ assemblies, a practice that creates representative panels of residents who then support policy decision-making. During the session, participants also discussed common challenges facing engagement efforts on campus and forged connections with peers across sectors.

The event was part of a new initiative at New America, focused on civic engagement and community colleges. In addition to producing research, including original case studies, New America’s Political Reform program is building a network for local leaders and providing tools for organizers running citizens’ assembly pilots and other civic engagement initiatives.

Today, nearly half of all American college students attend community colleges. These schools represent some of the most diverse higher education institutions in the United States, with large numbers of enrollees coming from working-class, first-generation, immigrant, and racially and generationally diverse backgrounds. About 30 percent of students at two-year institutions are 25 or older, compared to nearly 19 percent of students at four-year schools.

Many community college students represent historically marginalized and underserved populations that have often been excluded from higher education opportunities—and from traditional political processes.

For decades, community colleges have played an essential role in bridging these gaps by making higher education more accessible and by acting as vital sites of civic engagement and deliberation. In their classrooms and on campus, community college students can practice leadership, advocate for themselves and others, and participate in civic discourses, honing skills that are crucial both in the workplace and in democratic societies.

One school president shared that, in his opinion, this kind of personal development is a key part of the community college mission. Many of his students are already deeply connected and involved in their neighborhoods. By strategically expanding engagement opportunities, community colleges can give their students and other residents tools and inspiration to contribute even more to their neighborhoods, as workers, as employers, and as members of the body politic.

Collaborative governance or “co-governance” offers one framework for creating meaningful, hands-on civic opportunities. In the opening level-setting presentation, New America senior fellow Hollie Russon Gilman shared how this style of engagement gives participants a chance to not only share their ideas but actually help shape an institution’s decisions and policies. Often, this style of engagement is based on collecting a “mini-public,” which is a broad category of models that bring together representative groups of residents to learn, deliberate, and inform decision-making.

One type of mini-public is a citizens’ assembly—or civic assembly—that uses a sortition-based system to select a panel of residents, who are engaged in structured discussion about public issues. The residents then generate recommendations that influence policy decisions. As Rahmin Sarabi, from American Public Trust, described, this approach creates a “pop-up think tank,” where everyday people can work together to find actionable solutions to challenging problems. American Public Trust has helped organize civic assembly events in several states, including most recently a civic assembly in Fort Collins, California. These models of engagement can help reduce polarization and restore public trust in decision-making. When given adequate time for deliberation, participants often reach broad consensus, producing outcomes that reflect informed judgments rather than surface-level opinions—something that can be especially useful when addressing divisive issues, such as climate change, policing, and health care.

When implemented well, co-governance models can help participants build civic voice, power, and agency, and result in more effective policymaking.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all format. Tools like citizens’ assemblies can be selected and adapted to fit local needs, contexts, and resource constraints, including at community colleges.

To explore how community colleges could adopt co-governance models, participants discussed three questions:

1. Are there polarizing or contentious issues in your community that have been difficult to address or even discuss? Would citizens’ assemblies or other collaborative governance models help broach these topics?
2. How might citizens’ assemblies create pathways to support local economies or other post-secondary institutions?
3. What civic engagement programs already exist at your college? What is the relationship between your institution and the broader community? What are the current obstacles to civic engagement?

Many event participants felt that community colleges are especially well-positioned to support deliberative, place-based engagement because of their hyperlocal focus and their ties to regional economies.

However, the experts also identified common obstacles that could hinder engagement, and suggested strategies to help address them.

Several participants reported an increased difficulty engaging people across cultural and political divides. In many places, nonpartisan civic work can be perceived as politicized. Therefore, experts recommended avoiding hot-button themes, using sensitive framing, and working with trusted messengers to build legitimacy. They also recommended focusing on concrete, local issues. In particular, multiple attendees—from across the country—felt that housing and food insecurity, as well as the rising cost of child care, were topics that would attract broad interest from residents and students alike.

Another challenge facing community colleges is resource constraints. They often have limited budgets for extracurricular engagements. Faculty may struggle to lead initiatives because of heavy course loads or find that civic projects are less prioritized by their academic departments. Others are often adjuncts and have only limited availability, spread across multiple institutions. Similarly, participation can add additional demands for students who already are juggling jobs, caretaking responsibilities, and long commutes on top of their schoolwork. Additionally, those enrolled in online programs may have limited opportunities for in-person connection and civic participation. As a result, experts emphasized that community colleges need to adopt engagement models that reflect these everyday realities.

The discussion surfaced several ideas for how to do so.

Some experts and officials suggested providing compensation to students, residents, and faculty who participate in engagement events, in order to help make up for a missed shift or the cost of a babysitter. Another option may be offering class credit or embedding engagement opportunities into existing coursework, as well as creating institutional incentives for faculty to get involved and to foster collaboration across academic disciplines. In addition, participants stressed that compensation must be accompanied by efforts to address logistical barriers, like providing transportation or child care.

Additionally, partnering with organizations—including libraries, advocacy groups, and national engagement networks—could help provide additional expertise, community knowledge, and technical capacity to community colleges.

In the long run, participants noted the importance of continued financial support and investment in community colleges, in recognition of the engagement already underway at many community colleges. Finally, attendees underscored the importance of storytelling and data collection—not simply to report outcomes, but to elevate the lived experiences that inform and shape policy.

Community Colleges Are Essential Democratic Anchors

Community colleges are uniquely positioned to serve as engines of civic learning and localized deliberation. Their hyperlocal orientation, student diversity, and connection to regional labor markets make them natural hubs for location-based civic innovation. However, this potential remains underleveraged due to chronic underfunding and limited institutional capacity. Participants also reported that because democratic engagement has become politicized in some communities, framing is key to gaining support. Therefore, successful civic engagement within community colleges should focus on community-powered problem-solving to address tangible issues that resonate across party lines.

Structural Barriers Limit Participation; Integration Offers a Potential Solution

Time scarcity, economic pressure, and caregiving responsibilities continue to limit student participation. Faculty engagement is similarly constrained by heavy workloads and disciplinary silos. Participants said that providing financial compensation, embedding civic engagement in curricula, offering academic credit, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration (e.g., involving STEM and arts faculty) were promising avenues for sustainable, impactful development.

Resource Gaps Undermine Sustainability

Many promising civic practices are already happening at community colleges, but remain fragile due to the lack of funding and systematic support. Sustained investment in funding, staff infrastructure, and cross-campus coordination is essential to ensure these bright spots can take root.

Partnerships Extend Capacity and Legitimacy

Trusted community-based organizations—including libraries, advocacy groups, and national engagement networks—can provide both technical capacity and local credibility. Their involvement helps shift the burden of coordination away from overextended faculty and staff.

Convene Campus and Community Partners in Regional Clusters

Building on the momentum of this convening, New America, national funders, and other partners could explore continued conversations as a national community of practice to support experimentation with citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative models on community college campuses. Recognizing the importance of local contexts, future convenings would continue to bring together stakeholders within geographic regions to codesign civic engagement strategies that reflect particular needs, available resources, and governance structures. This relationship would provide tailored, practical support and structure for community colleges to build a stronger, sustainable democratic foundation.

Develop and Disseminate Toolkits for Curricular Integration

Participants expressed interest in adapting civic measures into academic curricula. Potential next steps could include producing case studies or toolkits on how institutions or faculty members did so, providing lessons learned, best practices, and a development framework to guide others.

Advocate for Dedicated Civic Infrastructure Funding

Participants called for targeted advocacy to encourage philanthropy and public funders to increase investment in civic engagement at community colleges. Current levels of democracy-related funding for education (0.6 percent) are insufficient to meet demand or scale effective models. Data and metrics alone are unable to build support. Participants emphasized the value of storytelling to capture the lived experiences of students and faculty. Future evaluation and advocacy efforts should center narratives that convey how civic engagement empowers participants and strengthens communities.