Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Monterey County kickstarts Youth Civic Engagement Program

    College students in Monterey Bay are pairing up with K-12 classrooms to teach students about civic engagement. The college students are then invited to give presentations during class time on topics ranging from the census to environmental justice. The program is a partnership between California State University - Monterey Bay and the Monterey County Office of Education, and also helps students fulfill a required community service credits.

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  • The Next Best Thing

    Efforts aimed at recruiting student poll workers, some of whom aren’t yet eligible to vote, increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Monterey County ran registration drives, spoke in classrooms and other student-oriented events, and participated in California’s High School Voter Education Weeks, ultimately recruiting 107 students. The Georgia Youth Poll Worker Project used social media to recruit 1,000 young poll workers across the state. The organization is compiling “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Starting a Poll Worker Project” to help other organizations similarly recruit and train young poll workers.

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  • How Youth Turned the Tide in the 2020 Election

    A team of young people helped Kirsten Harris-Talley win a seat in the Washington state legislature. The 63 young people, ages 12 to 22, did more than the traditional behind the scenes work, like phone banking and door knocking. Rather, the young campaign workers participated in strategy meetings, ran the campaign’s Instagram account, and shaped the campaign’s climate justice and youth rights platforms. Ten of the young people were given paid fellowships and carried out responsibilities in all aspects of the campaign, such as voter engagement and fundraising.

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  • There is no Gen Z ‘enthusiasm' gap

    Civic engagement groups creatively encouraged young Black voters to vote. Mississippi Votes ran fellowships where local representatives educated young people on the political landscape of their state and used "geofencing," to share sample ballot links and precinct information on social media when users’ smartphones were within specific geographic locations. Engage Miami reached young people with "Get Out And Vote" TikTok videos, and partnering with social media influencers. In addition to registering thousands of new voters, both groups lent resources to youth voices in Black Lives Matters protests.

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  • Youth advocacy groups kept voters safe and informed on Election Day

    Civic participation by youth advocacy groups registered tens of thousands of young voters and educated many more on election-related issues, including local and state ballot initiatives. Events held on zoom provided registration information and helped students connect with their peers, where they made pledges and plans to vote. Arizona PIRG Students New Voters Project educated 10,000 students this way, while CALPIRG Students' 500 volunteers registered 10,000 students, provided voter information to over 150,000 students, and made over 90,000 peer to peer Get Out the Vote contacts.

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  • Local high school students volunteer for national nonprofit to educate voters

    MyVote organized over 300 student volunteers, mostly in high school, to research candidates and their policies so that voters could have a “one-stop-shop” platform to learn about policy platforms of candidates running in national and local elections. The group covered the policies of all candidates from North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania and voters used the guides at the polls to educate themselves on the candidates and issues. Since many of the volunteers are not old enough to vote, carrying out the voter education research helped them get involved in ways that are useful to the democratic process.

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  • 2020 is a curveball for civics. How Chicago classrooms are responding

    Chicago-area high school teachers are approaching the mental-toll of election cycles on their students by rethinking curricula. Some teachers are approaching election anxiety by hosting empathetic dialogues by addressing students' anxieties and exploring their individual powers. Students also completed lessons that required them to have conversations with the adults in their lives regarding general voting information. Other educators are placing emphasis on exploring media literacy and understanding online propaganda with students.

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  • Forget civics class: Students want to make a difference in real life

    The Oakland Youth Vote started as a youth-led ballot initiative to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote for school board representatives. Student activism helped get the initiative on the November 2020 ballot and the Oakland City Council promised to fund and implement the measure if it is approved. The ballot measure passed with 67% of voters supporting it. Voting for school board representatives will allow students to have a say in the policies and decisions that shape their education and ensure that the diverse student body is appropriately represented.

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  • Midwestern Youth of Color Are Using Art and Culture to Build Their Political Power

    The Midwest Culture Lab consists of three organizations working to increase voter turnout among young people, especially young people of color. The partners work with artists, musicians, and other creative people to create messaging and campaigns that are culturally relevant and engage young people in civic participation. One partner, the Ohio Student Association, had artists create an ad that used relatable messaging about a criminal justice reform ballot measure to appeal to young people to vote. The ad brought in over 150 volunteers and contributed to doubling Ohio’s youth voter turnout from 2014 to 2018.

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  • EdNext Podcast: Teaching the Declaration of Independence with a Video Game

    Nationally, civic courses lack rigor, partly because few states require coursework in civics. A new video game called “Portrait of a Tyrant,” based on the Declaration of Independence, could change that. “Let’s gamify a story,” said Danielle S. Allen, director of the Democratic Knowledge Project. In this episode, the creators of the video game share the challenges that exist for creating civics curriculum and the way this game can bridge that game between students and history.

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