Civic Engagement Series

Click here for a list of upcoming Civic Engagement events for the year!

"Exploring Ballot Measures" Resource List, from September 2024

About the Initiatives

• Ballotpedia
• Legislative Analyst Office CA
• CA Secretary of State/Qualified Ballot Initiatives 2024
• Cal Matters: Great 1-minute videos explaining each proposition)

Stances

• League of Women Voters

• LA Times

• University of the Pacific

Follow the Money

• Ballotpedia
• CA Secretary of State

Voting Information

• League of Women Voters
• CA Secretary of State
• Orange County

"Navigating Truth in the Media" Resource List, from February 2024

Vetting News/Info

• Media:  www.allsides.com
• Myth Busting” – election fact checks (CA govt agency) https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2314.html
• Media Bias: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/how-to-spot-types-of-media-bias
• Evaluating Media Bias recording: https://vimeo.com/903731320?share=copy
• Civic Spirit on trustworthy news: https://www.theflipside.io 
• Digital Fact Checking: https://www.snopes.com/
• Online ballot information:  https://www.vote411.org/
• Fact Check: https://www.factcheck.org/
• Rumor Guard: https://www.rumorguard.org/
• News Guard: https://www.newsguardtech.com/
• The Trust Project: https://thetrustproject.org/
• Allsides:  https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
• News Literacy Project:  https://newslit.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiAibeuBhAAEiwAiXBoJIot6TzXbStvmfKg1M8QNKCAYSzOcqc5KMmF1nAhvIm-p4bNsH3VkBoCIJAQAvD_BwE

Disinformation Books

• Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America, Barbara McQuade, Audible Audiobook
• Disinformation and You: Identify Propaganda and Manipulation (Treachery & Intrigue), Marie D. Jones

Digital Literacy in Education

• News Literacy Project

News Literacy Project resources

• Educator Resource Library: https://newslit.org/educators/resources
• Framework for Teaching News Literacy: https://newslit.org/educators/resources/framework-for-teaching-news-literacy/
• NLP’s Checkology lesson, “Understanding Bias https://get.checkology.org/lesson/understanding-bias/ 
• Civic Responsibility 2020 | The Jewish Educator Portal (jewishedproject.org)
• CA law:  https://news.yahoo.com/teaching-kids-spot-fake-news-110037675.html
• IUSD Digital Citizenship: https://iusd.org/about/departments/information-technology/resources/digital-citizenship

Books about media for educators

• Caulfield, Mike, and Samuel S. Wineburg. Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online.
• Farmer, Lesley S. J. author. Fake News in Context.
• LaGarde, Jennifer, and Darren Hudgins. Developing Digital Detectives: Essential Lessons for Discerning Fact from Fiction in the 'Fake News' Era.

Social Media Influence on News

• Facebook Feeds/Algorithm Silos: https://themarkup.org/citizen-browser/2021/03/11/split-screen?feed=biden_trump
• Parents guiding kids on Social Media: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/social-media
• Legislative attempts to control social media: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/31/kids-online-safety-tech-ceos/

OC Voting

• www.ocvote.gov

"Food Insecurity in OC" Resource List, from November 2023

SHM – Sharing Healthy Meals - Get involved with our “sister committee” in SheMesh, our broader SHM Social Action group.  Upcoming events:

March 23,2024 – Purim event

Summer 2024 – Someone Cares Soup Kitchen

Second Harvest Food Bank

Since 1983, Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County has worked to support those facing food and nutritional insecurity in Orange County.  Mission Statement:  In collaboration with our partners, we provide dignified, equitable and consistent access to nutritious food, creating a foundation for community health.

•  https://feedoc.org/
• Volunteer Opportunities: https://feedoc.org/get-involved/#volunteer
• Virtual Food Drives:  https://feedocdev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Second-Harvest-Food-Bank-Virtual-Food-Drive-Overview-10-2022.pdf
• Advocacy:  https://feedoc.org/get-involved/#advocacy

Bracken’s Kitchen –Founded in 2013, their mission is simple: Through food rescue, culinary training and their community feeding program they are committed to rescuing, re-purposing and restoring both food and lives.

• https://www.brackenskitchen.org/about-us

Minimizing Food Waste: 

• Plantyou: Scrappy Cooking: 140+ Plant-Based Zero-Waste Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet https://bookshop.org/p/books/plantyou-scrappy-cooking-140-plant-based-zero-waste-recipes-that-are-good-for-you-your-wallet-and-the-planet-carleigh-bodrug/20623011?ean=9780306832420&gclid=Cj0KCQjwy4KqBhD0ARIsAEbCt6ilFjiIyYnk2w0dzvCpVq14bgtnl_BGUYfF5IoWfTGmkrKWufHeH5QaAtiaEALw_wcB

UCI Basic Needs Center:

• https://basicneeds.uci.edu/ UCI students facing food insecurity and other needs
• Fresh Pantry:
  • emergency food and toiletries to all current UCI students
  • Once per Week | One Basket Limit
  • Client-Choice Pantry - students select their own groceries
• Emergency Meal swipes to access healthy and well-balanced meals in the UCI Dining Commons
• ZotBites – UCI students can get text notifications to inform them about free and extra food from catered campus events:  https://basicneeds.uci.edu/zot-bites/

Families Forward – (numerous volunteer opportunities) https://www.families-forward.org/

Food pantry open to clients Monday - Thursday 10-4.  Regular volunteers process food and distribute to clients, and outside groups (faith, corporate, clubs, etc) also come in to help.  They offer 3 programs - pre-made bags of food for food clients, bags with requested items for food clients who have dietary or medical preferences, and food to clients in their housing program with a more extensive list.  Clients must live in Orange County and can come in weekly. They can adjust food to clients’ living situation (car, shelter, cooking source, frig or not). Several local stores donate produce, bread and other items.  We also receive fresh produce a couple times a week.  They are completely staffed by volunteers with food mostly provided by donations.  Our greatest needs today (10/23) are canned tuna and chicken, pasta, and canned beans (not green beans).

SHM’s Listening & Learning Committee - Recommended Resources on Food Insecurity:

How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh PhD, York Whitaker, et al

From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families from varied educational, economic, and ethno-racial backgrounds to explore how - and why - we eat the way we do.

Food Justice by Robert Gottlieb & Anupama Joshi

Food Justice recounts the history of food injustices and describes current efforts to change the system and how food activism has succeeded at the highest level. This comprehensive inquiry addresses the increasing disconnect between food and culture that has resulted from our highly industrialized food system

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle

Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade as a poor kid in a wealthy school district. It’s a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America.