When youth are involved and engaged in extracurricular activities like sports, band, drama clubs, student government, or community service, protection increases, and they are less likely to be involved in risky behaviors.
Civic engagement refers to participation in a range of political and non-political activities, including voting in elections, participating in action to benefit the wellness of communities. Research supports the connection between civic engagement and value to communities. Civic engagement also has benefits on participant health and wellbeing for individuals across the lifespan. Increased civic participation has been shown to build an individual’s social capital, expanding one’s social networks, increases a sense of purpose, decreases feelings of isolation, and reinforces positive community norms. Across communities, civic engagement can positively impact the quality of life for community members and increase health equity. This happens because people feel connected and engaged, and use their voice to influence change.
Youth and adults can face a number of barriers that can impact their ability to fully participate in civic engagement activities. Adults can partner with youth to increase participation throughout the lifespan. This can help to reduce engagement in risky behaviors, as well as provide the positive health benefits described above.
Understand civic engagement across adults and youth in your community. To begin this work, your coalition should understand how civic engagement works within your community by collecting information on a variety of measures including available opportunities, current participation across groups, and common barriers to participation.
Resources:
The Compendium on Civic Engagement and Population Health is a comprehensive resource compiling measures and types of civic engagement. This report also includes existing indicators and data sets that communities can use to understand civic engagement.
The National Conference on Citizenship hosts the Civic Health Index (CHI), which measures citizen engagement at the national, state, and sometimes local level.
Colorado State University also created a Civic Capacity Index (CCI) to measure a community’s capacity for change.
In their blog post the Colorado Health Foundation has an excellent resource detailing how civic engagement is directly tied to health and health equity. Things like volunteering at a school, helping a neighbor, working in a community garden, and even just reaching out to your next door neighbor are just a few examples of civic engagement that can lead to positive health outcomes.
Use the International Association for Public Participation’s IAP2 spectrum to assess the level of public participation local government and institutions use in decision making.
How to vote in your community. Voting is a part of civic engagement. It occurs at the local, state and national level. Your coalition is critical to educating community members about the importance of voting and how to vote. This includes providing information on how to register to vote (in Colorado if you have a state issued ID you are automatically registered to vote). Everyone that is registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail. They can mail it back at least 10 days before the election, drop it off at the ballot box or vote in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center. Check with the Clerk and Recorder in the county where you are working to get more information on the location of ballot boxes and voting centers. Ballots are available for non-English speakers, again check with the county Clerk and Recorder for information.
Resources:
Go to Just Vote Colorado or Go Vote Colorado to find information on how to register to vote, update your voter record, locations to drop off your ballot, and other valuable voting information. These non-partisan resources are easy to navigate and contain up-to-date information and important dates for the election, as well as resources for frequently asked voting & election-related questions.
People who vote can sign up for Ballottrax to track the status of their ballots
Community members who have questions or need help voting can visit 866ourvote.org and be directed to Colorado-based volunteers to answer their questions. The hotline is available via text or voice in the following languages:
866-OUR-VOTE – English
888-VE-Y-VOTA – Spanish
888-API-VOTE – Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog hotline
844-YALLA-US – Arabic language hotline
301-818-VOTE – ASL video call number
Understand how how people with less power and privilege in your community are excluded from civic engagement. Research shows that people from overlooked communities, like BIPOC, young people, people living with low-resources, and people living in rural areas (to name a few) are often shut out of civic engagement. Your coalition can help people from marginalized communities use their voices to impact community mobilization.
Resources:
The Annie E. Casey Foundation offers information on unequal opportunities for civic participation.
Learn about various barriers to voting youth of color and youth without college experience face in “Why Youth Don’t Vote: Differences by Race and Education”.
As a part of their ‘Five Building Blocks for Racial Equity’, the Race Matters Institute of JustPartners, Inc. offers resources to advance racial equity in communities.
Consider using an Equity Impact Assessment to better explore and understand such consequences. Race Forward offers free resources.
The Government Alliance on Race and Equity has the Racial Equity Toolkit An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity to help with developing strategies to decrease racial inequities.
Working with other community-based organizations can help to build momentum by engaging people to have a voice in what is at stake in their community, leading to a sense of belonging. Working with other organizations and/or individuals is the best way to maximize your coalition’s power and allows for a greater influence. Before selecting implementation activities, your coalition should take time to understand who is already working in this space, who has power to influence decision making, and what efforts are already happening.
Resources:
The National Academy of Community Organizers offers A Guide to Power Analysis in Community Organizing, which can help coalitions understand where power sits within a community around a particular issue.
It is important to note that the uniqueness of your community, its resources, and its needs will ultimately determine what implementation of this strategy will look like. Additionally, it is important for your coalition to approach this strategy in a way that is aligned with your overarching goal(s). The list below offers suggestions and ideas of evidence-informed actions your coalition can consider taking as part of your implementation of this strategy.
Support efforts in your community to increase youth-focused voter education and participation. Voting is a key component of civic engagement. At all levels of voting, local, state and national, youth (aged 18-35) have the lowest rate of turnout of any age group. Your coalition can help increase voter participation by helping youth understand the process and why their vote is important.
Resources:
Healthy Democracy Healthy People offers a webinar, “Voter Registration and Opportunities to Expand Inclusion." The webinar discusses policies and practices that impact voter registration among youth.
The National Voter Registration Day, an organization that supports non-partisan efforts to increase voter registration in the U.S., offers a variety of resources for individuals and organizations interested in supporting registration efforts in their communities.
Nonprofit VOTE offers resources to support non-profit organizations integrating non-partisan voter engagement into their ongoing activities and services. Per federal regulations, nonprofits are allowed to support voter engagement and education efforts, but they cannot support or oppose specific candidates.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) provides data-driven reports on examples of states where youth have and can influence election results to emphasize the importance of engaging them. Additionally, CIRCLE’s report “Expanding the Electorate” offers suggestions on how to increase voter participation among low-income youth.
Work with other partners to increase volunteering opportunities in the community for both adults and youth. Volunteering is a form of civic involvement that, on its own, benefits various facets of society and often increases participation in other forms of civic engagement. For youth in particular, volunteering can empower and help prepare them to be more active in their community.
Resources:
Make-A-Wish Colorado offers high school students roles on the Youth Leadership Council as well as volunteer opportunities with their Youth Wish Champions program.
Mile High United Way has a variety of volunteer opportunities designed to support families and neighborhoods in the community.
The City and County of Denver also has a wide range of volunteer opportunities as well as links to hundreds of other local and regional ones.
Conduct community conversations to meet youth where they are at – ‘essentially nothing for them without them.’ To encourage their participation, youth should lead the work and be part of decision making. One way to engage youth is through volunteer opportunities in schools, recreation centers and faith-based organizations.
Resources:
This Brennan Center for Justice report outlines why youth participating in civic engagement is important. For democracy, for equity, for communities and to help guide them into adulthood.
In Colorado, youth focused groups that work in civic engagement include Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism, New Era Colorado, Movimiento Poder and Young Invincibles.
Work with educators to create service-learning opportunities for youth enrolled in school. Service learning, which integrates community services activities has been shown to increase youth connectedness to school and the community. It also helps to improve academic outcomes, enhance social-emotional skill development, and promote civic participation in the future.
Resources:
Youth.gov offers information about service learning, such as its benefits, implementation challenges and solutions, and best practices to support implementation including state and district policies.
A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum can be used to understand how civic responsibility and service learning can be built into curriculums. Its focus is on community colleges, but the learnings can be applied to different education levels.
Youth Service America has a library of resources with service-learning curriculum ideas across grade levels.
Engage and involve community members on issues that matter to them. Talking with people promotes a diversity of dialogue and encourages collective action, leading to greater understanding. Community conversations allow people to hear different perspectives on policy issues, ways of using funds, and ballot initiatives. Facilitated community conversations can also help to foster understanding and build bridges. Ultimately, this helps to improve civic participation and improve the health statuses of its members.
Resources:
The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation offers an Engagement Streams Framework that outlines different types of tools and the right time and place to use them.
The Art of Hosting combines four tools (Circle Way, World Cafe, Open Space Technology, and Appreciative Inquiry) to harvest the wisdom of groups.
National Issues Forum provides guides that summarize some of the key perspectives on national issues to support informed deliberation. Each issue guide uses three approaches that help to discourage polarization that occurs along a binary.
AORTA provides a guide to Anti-Oppressive Facilitation that can help facilitators get started with quick tools for guiding groups.
The Liberating Structures Menu is a great resource for equity in engagement and facilitation.