Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally (ESAL) hosts an online network called ESAL Community. This is a space to build community between people in STEM invested in being active participants in local civic life. The community hosts civic education resources and training to support people looking to get more involved in their communities.
Our community has over 250 people with STEM backgrounds involved in their communities in various ways. Here, you can network with people already leading in their local communities, as well as people just getting started. Our network represents the shared knowledge and wisdom of people in STEM making a difference locally.
ESAL Community hosts an on-demand civic education course to help you connect with your community by giving guidance on how to engage with state and local governments, community groups, and community science initiatives while leveraging your valuable skillsets from your education and professional life. The self-guided materials include brief video modules featuring local STEM leaders providing practical advice paired with action-oriented exercises. With this course, you can move from “how can I get involved?” to “here’s what I’m doing in my community”.
ESAL Community has dedicated spaces to support your civic engagement journey. In addition to our space for the entire network to connect and learn together, we also have hubs for states and local STEM issues. Local Hubs are spaces for members of the same state to meet, share resources, and coordinate. STEM Issue Hubs are meant to help members increase their knowledge and access to strategies to address local issues that intersect with larger STEM topics.
The ESAL staff regularly updates the network with upcoming events and resources from ESAL and other organizations focused on civic engagement. We host regular events to connect with members, support their local work, and provide exclusive civic educational opportunities to network members.
Anyone can join the ESAL Community at no cost with our Member plan. We also offer paid yearly membership for those looking to support our work, which gives access to additional benefits.
Access to The Local Civic Engagement Toolkit, our on-demand course to help people in STEM start taking local action, is available at a sliding scale fee structure. All plans are available for a one-time payment for lifetime course access and membership to ESAL Community.
We offer Organization Memberships for groups looking to provide access to customized professional and leadership development and civic education to their members. These plans can include access to a customized workshop, The Local Civic Engagement Toolkit, and our fellowship program to develop local STEM leaders. You can read more about our offerings for organizations and the fellowship program here. Contact info@esal.us to get started.
For years, ESAL has been making connections with local leaders in STEM and civic life through our work providing workshops at conferences, interviewing people for our Local STEM and Stories from the Field series, and our other efforts to inform and inspire people in STEM to get involved locally. We have learned a tremendous amount from these connections, and have done our best to share their wisdom with the greater STEM community.
We have been in the fortunate position to connect people doing civic work to one another and have seen the powerful actions people can take when they make the right connections. We built ESAL Community to allow those connections to flourish without limits, fostering more collaborations and partnership. Our vision is to bring together people in the same virtual space to support local action.
