Toward Citizen Centricity: Leveraging the Citizens Academy to Foster Inclusive, Sustainable, and Generative Civic Engagement in Midland, MI

This service learning project aims to utilize positive psychology research to foster inclusive, sustainable, and generative civic engagement among residents of Midland, Michigan. We conceptualize civic engagement as an outgrowth of social capital, and we leverage the constructs of mattering, fairness, belonging, and bridging to offer positive interventions aimed at increasing Midland’s social capital. Specifically, we propose several changes to evolve the city government’s existing educational civic leadership program called the Citizens Academy. First, we suggest adjusting the academy’s recruitment process to expand access and inclusion by increasing the number and diversity of participants. Second, we introduce a more participatory and citizen-centered approach to the program content that builds on Midland’s four strategic pillars as a guiding framework. We offer four positive psychology-based exercises to be interwoven into the Citizens Academy curriculum: Strengths and Values, Community Exploration Guide, Citizen-to-Citizen Coaching, and Storytelling. Third, we recommend a Civic Engagement Scale as a simple tool to measure initial outcomes. It is our hope that this service learning project will serve not only as an initial catalyst for Midland’s goal of increasing civic engagement, but as a model for other cities and communities looking to utilize the science of positive psychology to effect large-scale change

Expanding Our Focus: Adding Well-Being Interventions to Adult ADHD Treatment Plans

Research is expanding regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in adults, a psychiatric disorder that features struggles with excessive distractibility, impulsivity, and restlessness, and often co-occurs with other mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. The resultant impact and complications of ADHD on one’s career, relationships, and other areas of life is substantive, making quality of life and well-being critical issues in adults with ADHD. Current ADHD treatment regimens emphasize mitigating the disorder and managing symptoms. These important goals, while creating some improvement in quality of life, fall short of the skills and approaches that enable individuals with ADHD to flourish. By augmenting standard ADHD treatment plans with well-being interventions, practitioners and patients can build the positives that make life worth living while they are mitigating the negatives that create challenge. The well-being model of PERMA, complemented by selected components of flourishing that are essential for, and often lacking in, individuals with ADHD – self-efficacy, community, vitality, and self-compassion – is offered as a roadmap, set of interventions, and metrics to help build psychological well-being concurrently with standard ADHD treatment plans. Flourishing and psychological well-being are both desirable and achievable among adults with ADHD

Expanding Our Focus: Adding Well-Being Interventions to Adult ADHD Treatment Plans

Research is expanding regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in adults, a psychiatric disorder that features struggles with excessive distractibility, impulsivity, and restlessness, and often co-occurs with other mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. The resultant impact and complications of ADHD on one’s career, relationships, and other areas of life is substantive, making quality of life and well-being critical issues in adults with ADHD. Current ADHD treatment regimens emphasize mitigating the disorder and managing symptoms. These important goals, while creating some improvement in quality of life, fall short of the skills and approaches that enable individuals with ADHD to flourish. By augmenting standard ADHD treatment plans with well-being interventions, practitioners and patients can build the positives that make life worth living while they are mitigating the negatives that create challenge. The well-being model of PERMA, complemented by selected components of flourishing that are essential for, and often lacking in, individuals with ADHD – self-efficacy, community, vitality, and self-compassion – is offered as a roadmap, set of interventions, and metrics to help build psychological well-being concurrently with standard ADHD treatment plans. Flourishing and psychological well-being are both desirable and achievable among adults with ADHD