{"id":402283,"date":"2023-11-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402283"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"NMHC-s-Civic-Workshop-ends-today-after-3-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/NMHC-s-Civic-Workshop-ends-today-after-3-days\/","title":{"rendered":"NMHC\u2019s Civic Workshop ends today after 3 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the goal of teaching participants how the CNMI government operates, the Northern Marianas Humanities Council is concluding today its three-day Civics Workshop with the hope that attendees will become informed, effective, and empowered citizens.<\/p>\n

As the first of its kind, the five-session workshop at the Azucena Hall of the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan in Garapan started last Wednesday and included topics like Dean Palacios\u2019 lecture on how laws are created and how community members may be involved, and former CNMI governor Juan Babauta\u2019s explanation of the history and evolution of the CNMI government, to yesterday\u2019s discussion with KUAM\u2019s Thomas Manglona on how the media is important to democracy, and former representative Tina Sablan\u2019s strategies for scrutinizing political decision-making processes in a democracy, specifically the Open Government Act. Today\u2019s concluding session with Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero will be focused on ethical rules in government.<\/p>\n

In an interview with NMHC program coordinator Leeani Villagomez yesterday, she said they saw the largest crowd that morning and that the sessions so far had been engaging and informational.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see where this will lead,\u201d said Villagomez.<\/p>\n

She had seen a lot of engagement with participants, and that, if the demand is there, they plan to develop more of these types of workshops in the future.<\/p>\n

In Sablan\u2019s presentation, she shared the importance of the OGA and her personal stories involving the law, and the importance of citizens to know their rights when it comes to government\u2019s openness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really helpful over the years to learn what exactly is the Open Government Act, so that we know what our rights are and what we are entitled to demand,\u201d said Gov. Arnold I. Palacios\u2019 special assistant om Climate Policy and Planning Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sessions have been really engaging and the whole overarching goal of this program is to empower more citizens to get involved, to challenge anything that they\u2019re not comfortable with, with any topics that concern them personally, so they can navigate better, whether speaking to their precinct representatives or getting access the resources available, websites and petitions,\u201d said NMHC program manager Naomi Tudela. \u201cWith these sessions, we learn a little bit where to begin and who to reach out to when they feel passionately about making a change in the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the workshop feedback had been good. \u201cI just spoke to one of the participants and they said that the sessions have been both interesting and interactive, and they have learned something new. At the end of each session, I ask: Did you learn at least three new things you didn\u2019t know before, and a majority of them would agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally, the NMHC team came up with 10 topics, but they were about to narrow it down to the Top 5 that \u201cwe felt would be most effective to really engage the CNMI citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tudela said that workshop participants included various groups of CNMI residents, from college students, to government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. \u201cThis is just a way to educate and bring awareness to the power you have as a voting citizen in the CNMI,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s session with DeLeon Guerrero will be focused on the ethical rules in the government, and the lecture is set to begin at 9am.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The crowd interacts with former representative Christina Sablan during her presentation at the Northern Marianas Humanities Council\u2019s Civic Workshop yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan in Garapan.<\/p>\n

-CHRYSTAL MARINO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the goal of teaching participants how the CNMI government operates, the Northern Marianas Humanities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}