James Madison's Montpelier We The People Fall 2015 | Page 6

WE THE PEOPLE

Expanding the Conversation
New Partnerships Help Center Convene National Conversation on Law and Government
For more than a decade, the Robert H. Smith
Center for the Constitution has sought to
become the nation’s foremost training center for
constitutional education. As a physical and virtual
teaching academy, the Center has engaged tens of
thousands of professionals—from all 50 states and
more than 90 nations—in the theory and practice
of the U.S. Constitution.
Today, the Center is poised for its next chapter,
putting it at the center of a national conversation
about governance, rights, and the rule of law.
Groundbreaking is imminent on Claude Moore
Hall, a state-of-the-art $4.7 million building
containing meeting and classroom facilities wired
for interactive learning, a media center supporting
real-time video interviews and professional content
production, and offices for Center staff.
New and expanding partnerships with
organizations including the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, the Presidential Precinct,
and the Millennial Action Project are are raising
the visibility of the Center’s programs, deepening
their impact, and creating compelling new growth
initiatives.
“Within the history of all the storied institutions
that analyze public policy and promote

understanding of American governance, there is
generally one point in time when all the right pieces
fall into place,” said Doug Smith, Montpelier Vice
President and Director of the Center. “This is our
time. No other organization matches our passion
for the ideas and principles of the Constitution
and the rights it guarantees us as a self-governing
people. Current and future leaders need what we
have to offer, both at home and abroad, especially in
today’s political sphere.”
A scan of the headlines shows how vital the
Center’s work is in today’s climate of government.
Larger cultural conversations have converged
around a series of constitutional issues in a way that
puts an historic focus on court rulings as national
litmus tests for larger cultural debates. Meanwhile,
data shows clearly that people have a shaky
understanding of the Constitution’s structural ideas
and principles.
“From recent rulings on marriage equality to civil
unrest related to perceived rights violations by law
enforcement, continuing to voter redistricting, and
Internet privacy and security issues blossoming
worldwide... these events are examples of why
Madison believed that self-governance relied on
knowledge and participation,” continued Smith.
“The Center exists to get people engaged.”

The future Claude Moore Hall

6