by Steve Brawner (BRAWNERSTEVE@MAC.COM)

Arkansas’ worst-in-the-nation voter registration and turnout rankings are part of a larger challenge of civic engagement that the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and its partners are working to address.

The Institute has launched the Civic Arkansas initiative to get Arkansans involved not only in the election process but also in their communities.

Janet Harris, executive director and CEO, described what that meant during a speech Tuesday (May 21) before Rotary Club 99 in Little Rock.

“Civic engagement, when we hear that word, we often think about voting, and civic engagement is about voting, but it’s about so much more than that,” she said. “It is about the fabric of our community. It is about how we choose to show up for each other, how we choose to connect with another, how we choose to care about what is happening in the world around us and do something to create the change that we want to see.”

Rockefeller Institute CEO: Arkansas’ low voter turnout part of bigger picture