Citizen Resources on the Web
Helpful links to internet resources
Citizen participation.
Public school finance.
Voting resources.
Public transportation.
Regional planning.
Public health.
Criminal justice.
Green buildings.
Other resources.
Lowcountry Women Vote.
Citizen Participation in Government
Need help getting involved with your government? Try these steps:
Citizen Participation opportunities:
(1) Check Your Voter Registration to determine in which federal, state, county, and municipal or public service districts you live.
(2) Find your representatives' contact information and information about meetings by checking the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Regional Directory and the State of South Carolina's website.
(3) Follow current state legislation through online weekly legislative updates. These reports summarize actions in the state House of Representatives.
(4) Sign up for the League's Grassroots Lobby Corps and receive national action alerts in your inbox. For both members and non-members!
(5) Educate yourself on your issue by exploring the websites referenced on this page and the following websites:
Institute for Public Service and Policy Research
Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs
(6) Attend meetings and begin building relationships with elected officials and government staff.
(7) Help engage youth in the community. The South Carolina Coalition for Voter Participation hosts an annual Youth Citizenship Academy. This week-long academy offers sessions including activism/volunteerism, how to use voting machines, how a bill becomes law, and business etiquette. Those interested in teaching a class are encouraged to contact SCCVP.
(8) Understand how public meetings are conducted by referring to Robert's Rules of Order.
(9) Join the League to work and network with like-minded people!
(10) Brush up on your advocacy skills. Get tips for communicating with elected officials and being an effective advocate for your policy priorities.
Public School Finance
LWVCA's position on public school finance
Read LWVSC's Education Finance Act Piece - South Carolina's education finance system is incredibly complicated. The most cynical observers suggest that this is done on purpose to obscure what is really going on. More likely, however, the complexity is a product of a piecemeal cobbling together of the education funding mechanism over time. Regardless of the cause, this paper is an attempt to simplify one of the most complex pieces of the puzzle, the Education Finance Act.
Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign - Sign the petition to amend the South Carolina Constitution to require the state to provide a "high quality" education, not just a minimally adequate one. For more, read the article Why We Need to Amend the SC Constitution.
School finance on state's agenda (The Post and Courier, July 22, 2008)
S.C. Department of Education
Reform, Improve, Support Public Education (RISE SC)
Local school districts:
Voting Resources
Elections information
Voting statistics
Public Transportation
Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority
TriCounty Link
Trident Rideshare - Tri-county residents can register online for this carpool-matching service
Independent Transportation Network (for seniors)
Transportation Association of South Carolina
Transportation planning resources (Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments)
Regional Planning
Our Region, Our Plan
Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCD COG)
South Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association
Lowcountry Housing Trust
Water Quality and You (a LWVCA report)
Water Quality and Your Health (a LWVCA report)
Public Health
S.C. health statistics (S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control)
S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC)
New Morning Foundation
Smoke-free Action Network
Criminal Justice
S.C. prison statistics (S.C. Department of Corrections)
Criminal justice statistics (U.S. Department of Justice/Office of Justice Statistics)
S.C. First Circuit Solicitor's Office (Dorchester, Calhoun, and Orangeburg Counties)
S.C. Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office (Berkeley and Charleston Counties)
S.C. Department of Corrections
S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services
Criminal justice positions (League of Women Voters of South Carolina)
Green Buildings
Build Green Schools (U.S. Green Building Council)
High Performance Schools (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
High Performance Schools Resource Gateway (Center for Architecture and Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology)
The Green Schools Initiative
Sustainability Institute
Other Resources of Interest
Local government and home rule in South Carolina: A citizen's guide (Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University)
Local newspapers:
Local TV channels:
Other resources:
Lowcountry Women Vote
Lowcountry Women Vote Coalition
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Last revised: December 15, 2011 17:13 PST.
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League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area, South Carolina. All rights reserved.
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