NYC Civic Coalition

Building a Youth Civic Ecosystem in NYC

Mission of NYC Civic Coalition

The NYC Civic Coalition is building a Civic Participation Ecosystem to deepen New York City youth’s knowledge of the electoral system and its impact on their lives and extend their civic participation between election cycles. 

The coalition brings together leaders of key civic nonprofits, researchers, evaluators, and funders to:

  • Capitalize on New York’s creation of a Seal of Civic Readiness
  • Move beyond isolated civic opportunities and activities to create an organized and coherent digital hub that honors civic engagement in and outside of schools 
  • Activate a broad range of young people in New York City, with a particular emphasis on those from historically marginalized communities
  • Work to “certify” and credentialize civic learning for young people to ensure that they receive recognition for what they’ve achieved 
  • Equip NYC youth with civic agency, identity and efficacy

Why It Matters

Despite the abundance of civic resources in NYC, we lack an infrastructure that makes civic opportunities known and navigable for young people, their families, and their schools and teachers in a systematic way. 

This has resulted in:

  • A generation of civically isolated young people
  • Separate and siloed civic organizations
  • Overworked civic educators
  • A lack of partnerships between in- and out-of-school programs

In recent years, New York City and State have taken promising steps to support stronger civic participation among young people through:

  • Voter pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds
  • Creation of a Seal of Civic Readiness for high school graduates recognizing proficiency in civic knowledge and experience with civic participation
  • A Civics for All initiative by NYCDOE that helps participating schools integrate civics into their curricula and extracurricular activities 

However, civic participation among young New Yorkers is still low. 

The time is right to build a much-needed civic ecosystem in New York that instills young people with strong civic identity, agency, and efficacy.

What We Are Doing

To strengthen the civic ecosystem and better meet the civic needs of our city’s young people, the NYC Civic Coalition is:

  • conducting a city-wide landscape analysis
  • honing in on the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure youth civic readiness for the challenges and opportunities of our time
  • continuing to develop connective tissue between organizations in order to achieve collective impact for young people.
  • designing a digital Youth Civic Hub that creates a coherent and clear platform for youth civic engagement and the integration of in and out of school learning. (Read about our vision, goals, and timeline for the Hub in these slides and on the Youth Civic Hub webpage)

NYC Civic Coalition Members

18by Vote

Campaign Finance Board, NYC Votes

The Center for Urban Pedagogies (CUP)

Citizens’ Committee for Children

CUNY SPS Youth Studies’ Intergenerational Change Initiative 

Democracy Prep Public Schools

Dominicanos US

Do Something

Facing History and Ourselves

Generation Citizen

Girls for Gender Equity (GGE),

Global Kids

Inspiring Minds

Integrate NYC

League of Women Voters of NYC

Mikva Challenge

Neighbors in Action

New-York Historical Society

New York Public Library

Press Pass NYC

Riley’s Way

Sadie Nash Leadership Project

Service Learning Project (SLP)

YA-YA Network

Young Governors

YouthBridge-NY

Youth Power Coalition

YVote

If you are interested in joining the Coalition, or for more information, contact Sanda at [email protected] or Elena at [email protected]