Big Citizenship: The Book!
Subscribe to the Blog RSS FeedWe talk alot about the concept of Big Citizenship here at BTC, so it won't surprise you to know that BTC founder and CEO Alan Khazei has gone and written a book about it. And today is a HUGE day, because Alan's book, "Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out The Best In America," has just hit the bookstores.
Here's a description of the book:
Alan Khazei has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference throughout his life. As a young graduate from Harvard Law School, he found a non-profit called City Year with his friend, Michael Brown.
City Year allowed young people to serve their communities—first in Boston, now in twenty cities across the U.S. and in Johannesburg, South Africa, and London, U.K.—through mentoring, tutoring, and leading children. It also allowed Khazei to be at the forefront of a generation of innovators who invented new methods of social
entrepreneurship.
Khazei not only built and ran a hugely successful organization with Brown, he explored how social change could be achieved through Congress, popular movements, and motivated alliances of groups. Khazei led the effort to defend AmeriCorps and then through his second organization, Be The Change, Inc., worked to secure its longterm future through the passage of the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. This journey—from the most local of grassroots engagement to the halls of Washington—is extraordinary in itself and a vital model for anyone despairing that change can ever be effected in a sclerotic political system. It can. Khazei has already proved it.
You can read an interview with Alan about Big Citizenship here, read an excerpt from the book here.
Alan will be traveling across the country to talk about his book and Big Citizenship. You can follow his book tour by signing up for e-mail updates on the book's website.
And everyone can participate in the first big book event, because it's a virtual book party, tonight at 8 pm, with Inconvenient Truth auteur Davis Guggenheim. Invite your friends over, order some books, have a good time talking about Big Citizenship, and call in at 8 pm EST to become part of a nationwide book party.
call in: (712) 432-0075
code: 182915
Here's Alan, speaking about service at the launch of BTC's ServiceNation campaign in 2008.
