Live Like A Citizen
For communities seeking a new way to think about civic participation
Many of the people working hardest to hold civic life together—educators, small business owners, librarians, faith leaders, program managers, neighbors–are exhausted and feeling the strain of fraying civic culture. They are longing for something the current moment isn’t giving them: practical tools to support the civic health of their communities, reasons to believe it’s worth it to try, and a sense that they are not doing this work alone.
Live Like a Citizen is a 2.5-day retreat-style training that brings dozens of these civic catalysts together, equipping them with new language, practical ideas, and relational ties that strengthen not just their individual work, but the civic fabric of the community itself.
We partner with locally rooted organizations to bring the experience directly to your place. You recruit the people, Citizen University brings the training. The impact is by and for your community.
Bring Live Like a Citizen To Your Community
Why Organizations Partner With Us
At Citizen University, we believe citizenship is the call of our times. And when we talk about citizenship, we aren’t referring to legal status, but rather, a living practice. A way of showing up for the place you call home and the people who shape it with you.
Communities don’t thrive because of policies or programs alone. They thrive because of people who can sustain habits like listening, building trust, convening neighbors, circulating power, and working effectively across difference. And those people are already in your community, but they need fortification. Too often they’re working in silos, worn down by polarization and uncertainty, and lacking the resources or standing to say “we can try this differently”.
That’s what Live Like a Citizen helps to change.
CU has partnered with libraries, community foundations, universities, non-profits, and leadership development programs around the country who have welcomed us in. We’ve worked with organizations from Chicago to Durham, from Lincoln to Akron, and dozens of places between.
Every single participant I spoke to after the training was buzzing with excitement and thinking about all the ways they could incorporate this work into their specific organizations and communities.
What The Training Does
Over 2.5 days, participants:
- Build a relational network with fellow community catalysts across sectors and experiences, grounded by your organization
- Develop shared language and practical tools for committing to citizenship and fostering civic renewal
- Strengthen and practice essential skills like power literacy, navigating difference, collaboration
- Leave with concrete ideas and commitments they can apply immediately as champions of civic hope and opportunity
The experience blends facilitated dialogue, collaborative exercises, civic rituals, and shared reflection. It is designed to be both rigorous and joyful.
The training gave participants new language and tools to talk about things in their specific organizations and the space to talk about them with others, perhaps for the first time in such a meaningful way.
Who This Is For
Live Like a Citizen cohorts are designed to bring together medium-size groups (around 40 people) who serve in community-influencing roles, people who create ripple effects in the habits and norms of their place.
- Educators and school leaders
- Nonprofit staff and organizers
- Librarians and cultural workers
- Clergy and faith leaders
- Artists and storytellers
- Public servants and local officials
- University staff and faculty
- Local business owners
- Neighborhood volunteers and community leaders
Cohorts can be drawn from within your own organization or network, or convened across a broader coalition of community partners. In either case, participants coming from a shared city or region is what makes the relationships possible—and practically important.
How It Works
CU handles the heavy lifting. You root it in your place.
We work in close collaboration with host partners throughout the planning process, from participant recruitment through post-training follow-up. You will not be doing this alone.
The facilitators were incredible. The content was so intentional and useful. It was a true joy to have you all in our community sharing this work.
Bring Live Like a Citizen to Your Community
We need a deep infusement of bottom-up civic power and renewal in the places we call home. And the people who can champion and serve as civic role models are already in your community. Investing in them, connecting and equipping them, may be one of the most practical and hopeful things your organization can do right now.
We are looking for locally rooted partners ready to convene and invest in the civic catalysts in their place—organizations with the relationships, reach, and commitment to bring the right people into the room.
Let’s commit together.
Reflections from Eric Liu, CEO and Co-Founder
Joy Udoh, a Youth Collaboratory alum, shows us how we're more powerful than we might think.
Charisma C. Thomas explores how Kendrick Lamar used his civic power to spark conversation and give "the Black history lesson our nation needed."
A message from Eric Liu on what citizens can do right now
