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Are you a Site Director or Education Specialist looking for resources to support your staff? Are you a group leader or teaching artists looking for tools to bring into your classroom? These resources can get you and your team ready and confident to bring civic engagement to your students. We encourage you to take advantage of a more hands-on learning experience by joining one of our civic engagement workshops.
Are you a Site Director or Education Specialist looking for resources to support your staff? Are you a group leader or teaching artists looking for tools to bring into your classroom? These resources can get you and your team ready and confident to bring civic engagement to your students. We encourage you to take advantage of a more hands-on learning experience by joining one of our civic engagement workshops.
Civic Engagement Vocabulary Companion
Civic Engagement Vocabulary Companion
There are lots of words associated with civic engagement that are often used interchangeably. This can be very confusing. Discover what we really mean when we talk about civic engagement in this annotated glossary that breaks down some of the terms you’ll find in DYCD’s Framework for Civic Engagement.
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There are lots of words associated with civic engagement that are often used interchangeably. This can be very confusing. Discover what we really mean when we talk about civic engagement in this annotated glossary that breaks down some of the terms you’ll find in DYCD’s Framework for Civic Engagement.
View or Download
Introducing Civic Engagement: A Facilitator’s Guide
Introducing Civic Engagement: A Facilitator’s Guide
The key to implementing civic engagement effectively is being in agreement about what civic engagement can look like in an afterschool setting. This guide will help you facilitate a discussion to get all stakeholders on the same page about what civic engagement is and how and why it is valuable with young people. Modeled after the Teacher’s College Lesson Planning format, this facilitation guide will provide you with the tools to prepare, teach, and facilitate an interactive discussion around civic engagement practices.
Civic Engagement Reflection Guide
Civic Engagement Reflection Guide
This guide will help you and your team bridge the gap between activity and reflection. We want you to feel confident and equipped to facilitate reflection discussions that challenge young minds, start conversations, and create safe spaces to explore difficult topics. This reflection guide will provide you with the tools to prepare, teach, and facilitate an interactive discussion that is developmentally appropriate and easily adaptable.
This guide will help you and your team bridge the gap between activity and reflection. We want you to feel confident and equipped to facilitate reflection discussions that challenge young minds, start conversations, and create safe spaces to explore difficult topics. This reflection guide will provide you with the tools to prepare, teach, and facilitate an interactive discussion that is developmentally appropriate and easily adaptable.
Civic Engagement Activity Guides
Civic Engagement Activity Guides
An accessible place to start is with TYTHEdesign’s Civic Engagement Activity Guides. Each of the five guides offer you concrete connections between the Framework for Civic Engagement and the activity being presented. In addition to a step-by-step procedure, the guide includes suggestions for scaling activities up and down, reflection questions, extensions, and materials.
Community Mapping
A tool to connect young people to their spaces, neighborhoods, or buildings; leads to community-based research, a type of investigation that takes place in community settings to understand local context, needs, and opportunities
Human-Centered Design
A creative approach to problem-solving by understanding people’s needs and developing insights to solve those needs; teaches young people to discover the “why,” rather than make assumptions or jump to conclusions
Participatory Decision-Making
Exercises that encourage young people to think critically about their choices and understand the importance of the decision-making process; provides an outlet for young people to articulate their opinions in a safe space on a variety of topics
Personality Compass
A concrete way for participants to reflect on their own strengths and challenges when working in a group; supports student voice by giving them ownership over how they communicate and collaborate with others, creating a safe and productive environment
Story Circle
A group of people sharing stories about their experience on a given topic or theme; allows participants to gather information about their community, understand various perspectives, and build empathy and connection with one another
An adaptation of role play that asks participants to think more critically about the impact of their actions; pulled from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed focused on social justice
Civic Engagement Case Studies
Civic Engagement Case Studies
What can civic engagement look like in different settings? We’ve compiled five case studies that demonstrate just that. See examples of civic engagement programming with students across all grade bands, boroughs, and subject areas.
Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education: Civic Engagement Club
Grades K-8
A bi-weekly club leads to conversations about social issues and inspires change within a community
Dream Charter School
Grades K-8
An after school program curriculum discovering ways to infuse opportunities for youth voice and choice
DreamYard Project: Fashion as Activism
Grades 9-12
An arts-focused club frames fashion and garment-making as a means to achieve Social Justice
Manhattan Youth at the Salk School of Science: Devised Theatre
Grades 6-8
A theatre club explores social issues through the performing arts by conducting community research and writing original theatre pieces for a fully-staged production
Queens Library: Voices of Queens Podcast
Grades 6-12
A group of young people learn about careers in journalism and media production through interviews and community service initiatives
W!se: Quality of Life INNOVATIONS Research Project
Grades 9-12
Young researchers explore various topics that impact their lives, collect data, consult with experts, and propose and present real, actionable solutions
Civic Engagement Resource Guide
Civic Engagement Resource Guide
The Civic Engagement Resource Guide is designed to take the legwork out of civic engagement planning by providing a number of virtual and local organizations and digital resources that offer examples and opportunities for engagement. This is a great place to start learning websites and local organizations that can inspire you and support you as you begin to implement civic engagement in your youth programming.
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The Civic Engagement Resource Guide is designed to take the legwork out of civic engagement planning by providing a number of virtual and local organizations and digital resources that offer examples and opportunities for engagement. This is a great place to start learning websites and local organizations that can inspire you and support you as you begin to implement civic engagement in your youth programming.
View or Download
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you still have questions? Check out our FAQs, gathered from surveys, focus groups with DYCD staff, and workshops with youth-serving CBOs like you, for detailed answers to your civic engagement questions.
Do you still have questions? Check out our FAQs, gathered from surveys, focus groups with DYCD staff, and workshops with youth-serving CBOs like you, for detailed answers to your civic engagement questions.
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