This past Thursday, Citizen Advocacy Center came to ECC to talk about how democracy works but also guiding people on how to become better citizens.
The event started with Jack Bentley, executive director of CAC explaining what ACE stands for. ACE stands for advocacy, community engagement and education.
Bentley explains that they have the ability to help citizens with improving their engagement with government officials.
For example, he explained that CAC help a citizen from Lynwood, IL to form Lynwood Voices group.
Next, he asked the audience what democracy means to them. He wrote seven things on the whiteboard.
For example, he wrote freedom of expression, access to info and resources/education as one of the answers relating to democracy.
During the event, Bentley presented the four pillars of democracy which are pluralism, individual rights, representative government, education and transparency and access.
To end the event, Bentley addresses the company’s plans for the future. He mentioned that the company is planning to create a network of community lawyers but also expanding CAC’s presence all over Illinois.
CAC Intern Cole Christensen gave his thoughts about the event.
CAC Intern Cole Christensen at the Democracy Now tour. (Daniel Nachampassak)Christensen has been an intern at CAC since March of 2024.
He mentions the tasks that he normally does as an intern at CAC.
“Right now, I’ve been doing a lot to promote these events and help out with the Research Help like research news stories in local areas and we’re based on who we think our audience is going to be. So we’re kind of going for more like college students talking more about student protesting and everything.” Christensen mentioned.
According to Christensen, he gave his takeaways of the democracy tour event which went very well but also getting better at pitching people to go to the democracy tour.
CAC Executive Director Jack Bentley gave his insights about the event.
Bentley wasn’t surprised by the terms demos and kratos because it matches the approach of democracy which is power to the people.
He learned from the audience that there’s a lot of hunger for activism and people want to be involved. Also, he stated that people want to try new things and challenge power structure.
Bentley mentions if there’s potential for offices of elected officials to be opened to the public.
“Absolutely but meet them always. I also want to be clear that we’re here to help elected officials too. Anytime an elected official wants to do a good job or be more transparent or be more accountable to their voters, you can call us.” the executive director mentioned.
Also, he added “We’re not just here to help citizens fight elected officials. We’re here to help elected officials be better. So, if you’re an elected official out there that wants to get involved with us. We welcome you with open arms.”
Bentley thanked Elgin Community College for hosting the democracy tour event. He mentions that CAC would like to come back here in the future to talk to more students and faculty members.
“We want people to stay involved. That’s the biggest, the biggest takeaway that I leave every tour event with this is not just a one-off class. We want people to leave feeling motivated and feeling empowered to make their own communities better,” he stated.
