New York City’s Youth Civic Hub

What is the Youth Civic Hub?

The digital Youth Civic Hub will share, for the first time in New York City, a one-stop clearinghouse of civic programming, opportunities, and resources, and an updatable calendar of civic events and opportunities. This Hub will activate a broad range of young people in New York City, with a particular emphasis on those from historically marginalized communities, by helping them, their families, and their teachers identify and engage with high-quality civic opportunities that align with their interests.

Where are we at in the development process?

Thanks to the hard work of our Youth Civic Hub Working Group, we’ve concluded our ideation and research phases and are now bringing a prototype of the Hub to life for user testing in the Fall of 2023. You can read about our vision, goals, and timeline for the hub in these slides.

At the heart of this work is equipping New York’s young people to be informed and engaged civic actors. We aim to launch the full Hub in the Spring of 2024 with the support of local youth organizing groups, placing this resource directly into the hands of the NYC youth who need it.  

What will be on the Hub?

Our team of student engineers is working in WordPress to build the five central features of the Hub:

1. NYC Elections Portal: This page will feature up-to-date information about NYC local elections, candidate scorecards focused on young people’s high priority issues, voter registration links and deadlines, and poll worker information.
2. Civic Opportunities and Events Portal: Internships, jobs, volunteer opportunities, training, and events aimed at youth in one central location. We hope to establish a pipeline in which young people get and stay involved in civics, political life, and advocacy work–and organize peers and family members to do so as well.  
3. NYC Power Map: A who’s who of elected and appointed officials–in youth friendly terms. We’ll synthesize the responsibilities of each role, the current office holder, their term length, and their contact information alongside handy guides and templates about how to effectively communicate needs to municipal officials.
4. Dynamic Directory: A vetted list of community organizations, services, and partners doing work around NYC for racial, criminal, economic, gender, immigration, and mental and physical health justice. This directory will be searchable based on location and issue area so that youth can find organizations in their communities doing impactful work.
5. Civic Glossary: A library of terms related to civic and political life in NYC to explain the complex connections between systems of power in our city in language accessible to young people–and all people.

This Hub will credentialize civic learning, ensuring young New Yorkers receive recognition for what they’ve achieved and set them on a trajectory for lifelong civic learning and participation. NYC Civic Coalition members will identify the civic competencies their programs are developing and their process for assessing these skills. They will then map these competencies and the work of existing organizations to the requirements of the NYS Seal of Civic Readiness and to national standards for democracy education found in the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap. This will allow schools and community organizations to work together more effectively and graduate more students with the Seal of Civic Readiness. 

Meet our Youth Working Group

Avery Nudell-Cook

Hi, my name is Avery Nudell-Cook and I am a freshman at Lehigh University. I am currently studying computer science but advocacy has always been a passion of mine. Being a part of this working group has been a great way to connect these two interests of mine and I am so proud of the progress we've made!

Chloe Chan

Hi! I'm Chloe, a second-year at Cornell studying computer science. I'm interested in leveraging technology for social good and immersing myself in the intersection of design and technology, thinking about user accessibility and research.

Chloe DelValle

Chloe DelValle (she/her) is a youth activist that has lived in both the Bronx and East Harlem, New York. Through her experiences of growing up in underdeveloped communities she gained interest and passion for civic engagement. In hopes of tackling different civic engagement tasks she is pleased to see how the Civic Hub will expand with your participation and curiosity of political knowledge.

Daiana Azimova

My name is Daiana Azimova, originally from Kazakhstan but now in New York City. I really like both STEM and humanities. In my free time, I enjoy reading a book, playing sports, and taking in nature.

Kelsy Delvalle

Kelsy Delvalle (she/ her) is a youth advocate and student at the Fashion Institute of Technology that has lived in the Bronx and East Harlem. Due to her environment growing up, she has found a passion for helping low income communities find outlet and inspiration to be more involved in civics. Seeing first hand how important it is to be aware of the civics in her community she has joined the Civic hub expecting to guide youth towards civic engagement.

Liam Cummings

Liam Cummings is a junior at the Illinois Institute of Technology studying computer science. He is an intern at New Voter's technology department, where he works on various coding projects. Liam strives to make a difference while also honing his technical capabilities.

Madina Khasanboeva

Hi, I am Madina! I am part of the data visualization team. I am a first-year college student, majoring in computer science and art studio. My hobbies include listening to music, drawing, and watching films!

Pranjal Modi

Pranjal Modi is a current Senior at Stuyvesant High School. He is deeply dedicated to youth advocacy--particularly in the mental health and environmental spaces--and is committed to increasing accessibility for civic opportunities among NYC Youth. In his free time, he likes to walk around the city, read science fiction, and code!

Samaya Gonzalez

Samaya Gonzalez (she/her) is a youth activist and senior at St Jean Baptiste High School. She is passionate about increasing her peer’s civic engagement and exercises this through her participation in the Youth Leadership Council and the creation of the Civic Hub.

Stephen Lin

Stephen Lin (he/him) a senior at the Baccalaureate School for Global Education interested in education equity and injustice in the technology sector. As part of the Working Group, he was involved in conducting research on types of elections in New York City and the role of government officials.

Sumya Hoque

Sumya (she/her) is a student from Kensington Brooklyn majoring in computer engineering but is deeply rooted in civic engagement from her experiences with YVote and Model UN. She hopes to bring out more of the tech-side of civic engagement to the table in the future and shed more light on notable women in STEM. Sumya looks forward to having the Hub give students opportunities to be vocal and self-empowered in ways unimagined.

Tina Zeng

Tina Zeng (she/her) is an youth activist living in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after moving to NYC, the city she grew to love, in middle school. She is passionate about civic engagement because she believes our values manifest in our personal politics. As Tina hones in on her radical imagination alongside other visionaries for what a truly equitable and sustainable society looks like, she looks forward to seeing the impact YOU are empowered to make through the Civic Hub!

Want to know more about the Hub or get involved in its development? Email Sanda at [email protected]

This work is supported by the Charles H. Revson Foundation through the NYC Civic Coalition that YVote co-leads alongside Do Something.