Interview with John Hart - CEO and Founder of the American Democracy Institute
The American Democracy Institute (ADI) was founded in 2005 by CEO John Hart, with the vision that young people are a powerful force for social change, and can strengthen American democracy.
They seek to facilitate people committed to working for the common good and help them become leaders by working together to shape the future of their community and their country.
They provide social action seminars (workshops) for young people: local leaders of progressive organizations lead hands-on sessions where participants work on social skills, to help them become effective activists and organizers.
ADI holds citizen summits around the country where one can find high profile, national leaders from business, academia, nonprofit, government, politics and other fields, helping to inspire and educate young people by bringing them together with role models who share their world-view.
Founder John Hart has had a long career working in social politics.
Prior to founding the ADI, Hart served as Director of Policy Implementation for the James B.
Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he managed operations and programs.
Before that he served as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Government Affairs for Ovations, a division of United Health Group, focusing on improving public, private and non-profit sector partnership in health care.
He was appointed as Principal Deputy Director at the United States Department of Justice, and also served four years at the White House as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton, and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; Clinton's representative to state and local elected officials on federal-state policy.
I had the chance to meet Hart the day before the Empower Change Summit this last Saturday.
He is an incredibly focused man, very intent on stressing the non-partisan approach of his organization.
The aim of the American Democracy Institute is not to tell people what to do, not to tell people who is right, but to empower them to be involved and to represent the issues that matter most to them and their communities.
Here is a bit of our conversation: CityZine: You have been running the American Democracy Institute for 2 years now, what has that been like? John Hart: We learn each time we do this.
The first time we did it, it was great.
We literally had a couple hundred people, we sent post cards that said, "Listen to Me".
4000 people showed up (in Chicago) at 8:00 in the morning, and we were like "wooo.
" We took some time to capture what just happened there.
We always ask certain questions in our surveys, that help us pinpoint the interest.
Then we did it again in Philadelphia.
We tweaked it a little bit and did it a little differently just to see how it worked, because it was so successful in the first one, we were convinced they were just coming for the speaker.
So in the second one, we invited everyone to stay for the workshops, and we found that roughly a little more that a third want to participate in an active and engaging way.
That's a lot of people.
There we had a theme around the Constitution - "How is the Constitution Relevant in our Democracy?" - We did it at the National Constitution Center.
We had a lot of really (this sounds like an oxymoron) interesting lawyers talking about issues in very accessible ways, with people who don't normally get to talk about that stuff with lawyers.
It made for a really engaging conversation.
The relevancy of that was, we were talking about the 4th amendment, and why it matters in our life, and eavesdropping and privacy.
Then BOOM, two months later, there's a big controversy about the NSA working with phone and other communication companies to have access to lists and whether or not that is an intrusion.
So we find that, on the idea side, a lot of people get bits and pieces and what they want is a framing, a context for it.
They have a big "what does this all mean" in their minds and this is a place where you can get that framing.
Then we ask them what workshops they would like to continue, or if anyone has something that we didn't think of that you would want to start and we will provide a classroom for that.
A lot will say that they would have liked to go to more than one workshop (all workshops are usually run simultaneously); so we will repeat some.
The main key for us to is make sure it's free so that anyone who wants to access it can, and to keep it accessible to a broader section of our society.
CZ: If someone wanted to be involved in a Summit, but was unable to get to it, is there any other way that they could take advantage of the network that you have created? JH: What's exciting is that now we've created a platform, EmpowerChange.
org, where people can come to connect, learn, and collaborate.
It's in its first generation, it has a long way to go to improve, but you know last time we were doing this, people were ripping out pieces of paper and writing down our e-mail.
So we're hoping that people will report back in and tell us: this is what I committed to that day, this is what I did, this is what I found, here are some new opportunities.
This is what we did with the Voices of Uganda people.
They said it was great.
You identify what you need because I bet there's a lawyer out there that can help you incorporate, I bet there's a financial person who can help you keep track of the books.
That's what everybody wants.
Not everyone can quit their job and go out and join the French Foreign Legion, but they can contribute in their own time.
And if they have a way to find other people who can contribute a bit of time and skill, then you have a really facilitating system.
CZ: Can you tell us a bit about what someone could expect to do after attending this Summit? JH: There are a lot of people who have great ideas about what to do, the way that we look at it is: There are a lot of good people who have ideas who are looking for people to support those ideas, and there are countless people who are looking to be inspired.
People who don't necessarily wake up and say "I would like to make this world a cleaner environment", but would certainly support that if someone got in front of them and made a supporting case.
So we're trying to bring that - create a marketplace of ideas where people can come and do that.
We have no illusions that 2,000 plus people who will come and participate will then go out and found organizations.
But we have found that in the past, there is a group of leaders that start to do more things effectively through the workshops; and then there are new people who come into it.
There's this new woman from Chicago who is almost like an ADI groupie, she came and told us she had been at our first summit in Chicago and had continued on with us to DC.
She told us that she would like to see more women leaders.
She had been inspired by Hilary Clinton speaking at that summit, then went on to the workshop on 'Taking an Idea to Reality'; found experts at raising money for non-profits and people happy to help her.
She then went to a corporation and got $40,000 to start a women's leadership forum on campus.
We haven't been able to keep up with it! But thats the kind of stuff that is happening from people, you just don't know what to expect! CZ: Say for instance that someone was interested in how they could take a part in democracy by utilizing their power as a consumer, how would you advise them? JH: I think what we're looking to do is not tell people what to do, we're looking for them to tell us what to do.
So I think that's a great question and I hope it's discussed in the panels.
I think there are effective ways of aligning, and of recognizing that we are in a capitalist society and that you can leverage your role as a consumer, as an individual and more collectively on behalf of a cause to effect outcomes.
There is one panel that is getting at that called E3, and it's a group of students that came to us and said "This is an issue in California, we want to do that kind of consumer based approach with Universities to improve the ecology, the environment and the energy we use".
There is a whole discussion that I am not the best person for, but who are literally going to talk about how to do that.
CZ: It's an amazing opportunity to hear President Clinton speak; can you talk a bit about why he was chosen? JH: With Bill Clinton, you have someone who is living a life of empowering ordinary citizens to do extraordinary things; what he's done as President speaks to that, and what he did as Governor of Arkansas as well.
But I think most profoundly, what he's doing now with the Clinton Global Initiative really represents the kind of person we want to put in front of people at our events.
What he's trying to do is bring people together and empower them to do great things.
So, for example, in Africa, he saw a situation where there was a supply of vaccines that would prevent the spread of AIDs in Africa, but there was no market for the private sector to go in there and do it, so they studied the problems and started a non-profit that basically created a market for it.
A private company couldn't do that, and yet a non-profit couldn't produce or effectively distribute the vaccine, so it's a collaboration of private and public in a way that at the end of the day is far more sophisticated than anything we're doing.
But at it's root it's the same thing, its about empowerment.
For more information on American Democracy Institute events, check out their website and empowerchange.
org and learn how you can get involved.
They seek to facilitate people committed to working for the common good and help them become leaders by working together to shape the future of their community and their country.
They provide social action seminars (workshops) for young people: local leaders of progressive organizations lead hands-on sessions where participants work on social skills, to help them become effective activists and organizers.
ADI holds citizen summits around the country where one can find high profile, national leaders from business, academia, nonprofit, government, politics and other fields, helping to inspire and educate young people by bringing them together with role models who share their world-view.
Founder John Hart has had a long career working in social politics.
Prior to founding the ADI, Hart served as Director of Policy Implementation for the James B.
Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he managed operations and programs.
Before that he served as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Government Affairs for Ovations, a division of United Health Group, focusing on improving public, private and non-profit sector partnership in health care.
He was appointed as Principal Deputy Director at the United States Department of Justice, and also served four years at the White House as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton, and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; Clinton's representative to state and local elected officials on federal-state policy.
I had the chance to meet Hart the day before the Empower Change Summit this last Saturday.
He is an incredibly focused man, very intent on stressing the non-partisan approach of his organization.
The aim of the American Democracy Institute is not to tell people what to do, not to tell people who is right, but to empower them to be involved and to represent the issues that matter most to them and their communities.
Here is a bit of our conversation: CityZine: You have been running the American Democracy Institute for 2 years now, what has that been like? John Hart: We learn each time we do this.
The first time we did it, it was great.
We literally had a couple hundred people, we sent post cards that said, "Listen to Me".
4000 people showed up (in Chicago) at 8:00 in the morning, and we were like "wooo.
" We took some time to capture what just happened there.
We always ask certain questions in our surveys, that help us pinpoint the interest.
Then we did it again in Philadelphia.
We tweaked it a little bit and did it a little differently just to see how it worked, because it was so successful in the first one, we were convinced they were just coming for the speaker.
So in the second one, we invited everyone to stay for the workshops, and we found that roughly a little more that a third want to participate in an active and engaging way.
That's a lot of people.
There we had a theme around the Constitution - "How is the Constitution Relevant in our Democracy?" - We did it at the National Constitution Center.
We had a lot of really (this sounds like an oxymoron) interesting lawyers talking about issues in very accessible ways, with people who don't normally get to talk about that stuff with lawyers.
It made for a really engaging conversation.
The relevancy of that was, we were talking about the 4th amendment, and why it matters in our life, and eavesdropping and privacy.
Then BOOM, two months later, there's a big controversy about the NSA working with phone and other communication companies to have access to lists and whether or not that is an intrusion.
So we find that, on the idea side, a lot of people get bits and pieces and what they want is a framing, a context for it.
They have a big "what does this all mean" in their minds and this is a place where you can get that framing.
Then we ask them what workshops they would like to continue, or if anyone has something that we didn't think of that you would want to start and we will provide a classroom for that.
A lot will say that they would have liked to go to more than one workshop (all workshops are usually run simultaneously); so we will repeat some.
The main key for us to is make sure it's free so that anyone who wants to access it can, and to keep it accessible to a broader section of our society.
CZ: If someone wanted to be involved in a Summit, but was unable to get to it, is there any other way that they could take advantage of the network that you have created? JH: What's exciting is that now we've created a platform, EmpowerChange.
org, where people can come to connect, learn, and collaborate.
It's in its first generation, it has a long way to go to improve, but you know last time we were doing this, people were ripping out pieces of paper and writing down our e-mail.
So we're hoping that people will report back in and tell us: this is what I committed to that day, this is what I did, this is what I found, here are some new opportunities.
This is what we did with the Voices of Uganda people.
They said it was great.
You identify what you need because I bet there's a lawyer out there that can help you incorporate, I bet there's a financial person who can help you keep track of the books.
That's what everybody wants.
Not everyone can quit their job and go out and join the French Foreign Legion, but they can contribute in their own time.
And if they have a way to find other people who can contribute a bit of time and skill, then you have a really facilitating system.
CZ: Can you tell us a bit about what someone could expect to do after attending this Summit? JH: There are a lot of people who have great ideas about what to do, the way that we look at it is: There are a lot of good people who have ideas who are looking for people to support those ideas, and there are countless people who are looking to be inspired.
People who don't necessarily wake up and say "I would like to make this world a cleaner environment", but would certainly support that if someone got in front of them and made a supporting case.
So we're trying to bring that - create a marketplace of ideas where people can come and do that.
We have no illusions that 2,000 plus people who will come and participate will then go out and found organizations.
But we have found that in the past, there is a group of leaders that start to do more things effectively through the workshops; and then there are new people who come into it.
There's this new woman from Chicago who is almost like an ADI groupie, she came and told us she had been at our first summit in Chicago and had continued on with us to DC.
She told us that she would like to see more women leaders.
She had been inspired by Hilary Clinton speaking at that summit, then went on to the workshop on 'Taking an Idea to Reality'; found experts at raising money for non-profits and people happy to help her.
She then went to a corporation and got $40,000 to start a women's leadership forum on campus.
We haven't been able to keep up with it! But thats the kind of stuff that is happening from people, you just don't know what to expect! CZ: Say for instance that someone was interested in how they could take a part in democracy by utilizing their power as a consumer, how would you advise them? JH: I think what we're looking to do is not tell people what to do, we're looking for them to tell us what to do.
So I think that's a great question and I hope it's discussed in the panels.
I think there are effective ways of aligning, and of recognizing that we are in a capitalist society and that you can leverage your role as a consumer, as an individual and more collectively on behalf of a cause to effect outcomes.
There is one panel that is getting at that called E3, and it's a group of students that came to us and said "This is an issue in California, we want to do that kind of consumer based approach with Universities to improve the ecology, the environment and the energy we use".
There is a whole discussion that I am not the best person for, but who are literally going to talk about how to do that.
CZ: It's an amazing opportunity to hear President Clinton speak; can you talk a bit about why he was chosen? JH: With Bill Clinton, you have someone who is living a life of empowering ordinary citizens to do extraordinary things; what he's done as President speaks to that, and what he did as Governor of Arkansas as well.
But I think most profoundly, what he's doing now with the Clinton Global Initiative really represents the kind of person we want to put in front of people at our events.
What he's trying to do is bring people together and empower them to do great things.
So, for example, in Africa, he saw a situation where there was a supply of vaccines that would prevent the spread of AIDs in Africa, but there was no market for the private sector to go in there and do it, so they studied the problems and started a non-profit that basically created a market for it.
A private company couldn't do that, and yet a non-profit couldn't produce or effectively distribute the vaccine, so it's a collaboration of private and public in a way that at the end of the day is far more sophisticated than anything we're doing.
But at it's root it's the same thing, its about empowerment.
For more information on American Democracy Institute events, check out their website and empowerchange.
org and learn how you can get involved.
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