David Mathews Center for Civic Life

The David Mathews Center for Civic Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt corporation. We build skills, habits, and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision making.

Simply put, we work to strengthen civic life in all 67 Alabama counties. Our programming includes convening and moderating deliberative public forums, conducting moderator and convener training workshops, and developing youth civic engagement through educational programming. Our programs equip Alabamians with tools to find strength in themselves, and their fellow citizens, to find solutions to knotty community problems and pressing public issues.

Because we believe that Alabamians should play a role in defining the public issues – and their solutions – that affect their daily lives, we listen as much as we speak. Much of our time is spent in Alabama communities working with an ever-growing network of everyday Alabamians in their capacities as small business owners, university professors, educators, service providers, faith-based community members, and more to strengthen civic life in our state.