Longing for Meaningful Civic Life

Tuesday evenings in the South Sound are rich opportunities for civic engagement, and the evening of May 20, 2025, was no exception. Alongside the usual rotation of council, commission, and school board meetings, the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound hosted its second-annual Community Conversation—a timely gathering with civic innovator and author Eric Liu.

As the afternoon’s sputtering rain showers gave way to rays of sun, about 175 people from around our region made their way through South Puget Sound Community College’s forested campus to the Student Union building. Inside, the space was filled with voices—along the food line, around the tables, and from every corner of the room—as people caught up with old friends and made new connections. The energy in the room confirmed something we often hear from local communities. People are hungry to take a more meaningful part in civic life and want to do so with skill, with care, and with each other.

For those who share that hunger, we’re pleased to offer some reflections and context on the event, how it connects with our broader work, and an invitation to keep the conversation going.

Why Community Conversations?

The Community Foundation board has been hard at work on an updated Strategic Framework, which you can now find in our 2024 Annual Report. One thing that clearly emerged in this process was the importance of supporting our communities beyond our grantmaking role. This includes increased support for democracy and civic engagement, fostering community relationships, and promoting a sense of place and belonging.

Reflecting on our strategic approach sparked thoughtful discussions about how we engage the community and create opportunities for connection. We wanted to honor the spirit of joy and gathering at the heart of long-standing traditions—like our annual golf tournament—while also recognizing the need to evolve toward something more inclusive that reflects the diverse interests of the whole community. And one thing we’ve heard often from our community is concern over the fractures spreading through society, making it harder to connect with friends, family, and neighbors. Many people have been feeling too divided to hear each other, let alone solve problems together. That concern resonated with us, and we wanted to support the many people around us who were interested in coming together in search of something better.

In response, we held our inaugural Community Conversation with journalist and bridge-builder Mónica Guzmán in 2024. Mónica encouraged us to lean into curiosity and have fearlessly honest conversations across differences. Many in our community still talk about her visit, sharing how her reflections continue to influence the way they listen, ask questions, and engage across lines of division today. People want to come together, talk about things that matter, and build power to shape our future—together, right here where we live.

This year’s Community Conversation with Eric Liu built on the momentum of last year’s event, furthering the work to create space for shared inquiry, civic imagination, and collaboration. Rather than endpoints, these dynamic related ideas invite us into something powerful and ongoing. We plan to continue our Community Conversations and related work alongside so many of you.

Why Eric Liu?

Last year, we explored how we listen. This year, we asked: What’s our part?

We chose Eric as this year’s speaker because he points to the next step in this work. He challenges us to move from curiosity to contribution, from listening to co-creation. If last year was about finding the courage to engage across differences, this year was about committing to the practice of civic life, and resourcing ourselves—together—to do it well for the long road ahead.

Eric Liu is an author and national voice on democracy, but he is also a civic practitioner, based right here in the Pacific Northwest. As CEO of Citizen University, Eric works to cultivate a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship nationwide. He speaks with clarity about the need for us to not only reach across divides, but also to do the hard work and take ownership of the future we want to build.

In his book, You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Things Happen, Eric writes, “In civically flourishing societies, the people remember that the system is healthiest and most robust when power emerges from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down. In such societies, the people recognize that it is not only fair that power be circulated widely; it is also wise.”

His message is equal parts inspiration and a direct challenge to ask, “What is our role in strengthening the civic fabric of this place we call home?” It’s a question that resonates, not just because of its timeliness, but because it reminds us that real community transformation in the South Sound—and the positive outcomes we seek for everyone—will come when people feel connected, included, and empowered to work together.

Setting the Tone with Music

Before Eric Liu took the stage on May 20, local singer-songwriter Parfait Bassalé opened the evening with music. Parfait—a beloved familiar face around the South Sound—describes himself as a friend + artist + reconciler. His soulful, heartfelt musical introduction set the tone for the evening and blended seamlessly with Eric’s message.  

Through three original songs paired with reflective invitations, Parfait encouraged the room to move from certainty to curiosity, to look beyond surface-level differences and see each other more fully, and to embrace the beauty of imperfection that makes community and connection real.

This opening reminded us that building bridges isn’t just a civic act; it’s also a creative one. Parfait’s opening modeled the evening’s shared presence and purpose so well that Eric summed up his remarks by saying, “If you do nothing else tonight, go home and commit to being like Parfait—a friend, an artist, and a reconciler.”

A Timely Message for the South Sound

Eric shared his vision and heart with the room through a brief address and longer fireside chat with Community Foundation board member and TVW CEO, Renee Radcliff Sinclair. The informal format made room for a challenging, personal, and deeply affirming talk. So many thoughts stood, but we want to highlight a few that resonated deeply:

• ‍Citizenship is an equation: Power + Character = Citizenship. It’s not enough to know how systems work (power); we must also wield that power with integrity, reciprocity, and care (character).‍
• Democracy is a habit, not a guarantee. We must practice it, not just protect it. That means gathering, talking, arguing productively, and learning how to live together despite disagreement.‍
• America is an argument—and that’s a good thing. The question is whether we are willing to stay in conversation long enough to make the argument meaningful.‍
• Community is a choice. It’s not just defined by geography, it’s created through relationships, action, and a shared willingness to show up.‍
• We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. No one else has the solutions to our community’s challenges. If we want strong connected communities, we have to build them ourselves.
  

Through it all, Eric kept returning to the importance of seeing each other. Of taking the time to understand what’s behind someone’s fear, anger, or beliefs—and then asking, “What can we create together anyway?”

From Talk to Action: What’s Our Part?

Eric Liu closed with an action call for each of us to be a civic catalyst. Don’t wait for permission. Start where you are. Invite others in. Practice the art of community, and ask, “What’s my part?”

That challenge resonated with the Community Foundation. One way we’re responding is the launch of our new Civic Life & Belonging Grants. This small but meaningful pilot program is designed to support projects that bring people together and build understanding across differences, create new opportunities for civic participation and local solutions, and strengthen shared community purpose. This creates long-term conditions for community well-being because people who feel engaged, connected, and like they belong are more likely to act on behalf of their families and neighborhoods or address the systems that need to change.

While we are excited for that possibility, our excitement is tempered by a tension that we want to honor. This grant program has been in the works for a while, but it’s launching in a difficult and uncertain economic season. Many of our nonprofit partners are facing painful struggles in their daily work, including staff reductions, tight budgets, and even pending closures.

We hope these new grants will seed the habits, relationships, and structures that make inclusive problem-solving and sector-wide sustainability possible long-term. At the same time, we will continue exploring our part in responding to the immediate challenges local nonprofits face. We invite you to join us however you can—whether that’s volunteering, increasing your giving this season, or checking in with a nonprofit you love to remind them they aren’t alone.

No single path, person, or organization has all the answers, but together we have what we need. In the words of Eric Liu, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Thank You

To everyone who attended the Community Conversation this year, thank you for showing up, listening deeply, asking questions, and connecting. These events are only meaningful because of what you, our community, bring to them. For those who would like to watch (or re-watch) the full Conversation with Eric Liu, you can find the video on our website.

We hope you’ll join us for the next one! In the meantime, we invite you to join us in carrying both the inspiration and the challenge Eric Liu posed in his question, “What’s my part?” Asking and answering that question together, daily, is how we build the community we want here in this place we call home.