V1 of the Youth Civic Hub has LAUNCHED! Check it out at youthcivichub.org
And learn more about it’s launch by reading this article from Chalkbeat and this article from Gothamist.
What is the Youth Civic Hub?
The digital Youth Civic Hub (youthcivichub.org) is a for youth, by youth one-stop clearinghouse of civic programming, opportunities, and resources, and an updatable calendar of civic events and opportunities in New York City.
This Hub will activate a broad range of young people in NYC, with a particular emphasis on those from historically marginalized communities and civic deserts, by helping them, their families, and their teachers identify and engage with high-quality civic opportunities that align with their interests. It will also make voting, and registering or pre-registering to vote, more accessible to young people, using youth friendly features and language.
Where are we at in the development process?
At the heart of this work is equipping New York’s young people to be informed and engaged civic actors. Thanks to the hard work of our Youth Civic Hub Working Group, we launched V1 of the Hub in April 2024. The team will continue to improve the site based on user feedback, creating an even more robust Hub in advance of the 2024 and 2025 elections.
You can read about our vision, goals, and timeline for the Hub during its ideation and research phases of 2023 in these slides below.
What is on the Hub?
Our team of student engineers and research fellows built five central features of the Hub:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eventually, 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!
Mia Williams-Payne
Mia Williams-Payne is a second-year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying Civil & Environmental Engineering. She’s from the Bronx, NY and has been involved with YVote since her sophomore year of high school. She’s passionate about providing youth and disenfranchised communities with the tools and resources needed to contribute to their local community.
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!
Tech Advisory Board
Arpan Somani
Arpan Somani is a Brooklyn-based partnerships and business development leader sitting at the intersection of social impact, creative media and technology. He currently leads technology partnerships for the Obama Foundation and previously held similar roles at the learning platform, Codecademy, and streaming service, SoundCloud. Within his work in the technology industry, Arpan has had a particular focus on inclusive and accessible tech. He also sits on the advisory board of ShowUp, a platform aiming to center activism in the music industry and until recently, served as co-chair of the development board for Education Through Music, a nonprofit that increases access to music education in NYC public schools. In an effort to dive deeper into the inner workings of NYC, Arpan also hosts and produces Don’t Sleep New York, a short podcast exploring topics ranging from bail reform to climate resiliency to composting. Arpan is currently a Fellow in the Shape of Cities To Come Institute, a new Mellon Foundation-backed initiative that explores the intersection of urban planning and activism in NYC.
Christopher Edley
Chris Edley III is Co-Founder and Director of Strategy at Design for Progress, a civic sector brand and product consultancy. He is passionate about translating goals into motivating opportunities, finding positive energy in tensions, and inspiring communities to co-create a better world. In former lives he's been an activist, a musician, and a cabinetmaker.
Uma Kalkar
Uma Kalkar is a civic technologist and quantitative social scientist building resilient, human-centered systems that leverage the good of data, technology, and the human spirit. Her expertise has been consulted by The Economist Impact, featured in Forbes, and presented at the Aspen Ideas Festival. As the Strategy & Innovation Director of 18by Vote, a U.S. nonprofit exclusively focused on ‘rising voters’ (youth ages 15 to 19 years old), Uma drew on data and data science to identify ‘deserts’ of underserved voters. To date, 18by Vote has reached over 2.3 million people and has been featured by NBC, Teen Vogue, CIRCLE at Tufts University, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Uma is currently the Research & Innovation Manager for Youthful Cities, a social enterprise, where she uses data and data science to improve urban programs and policies for the future of work for young people. Uma holds a Master of Public Policy in Digital and New Technology from Sciences Po Paris and Master of Global Affairs in Innovation Policy from the University of Toronto.
Want to know more about the Hub or get involved in its development? Email Elisa Mateo-Saja 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.
