Youth Civic Engagement Initiative

Resource Description

The Youth Civic Engagement Initiative is one of seven projects of the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth. The Initiative works to build the capacity of community foundations nationwide in order to encourage youth participation in civic life. The Coalition sees youth civic engagement as an important means to both develop youth capacity and improve community life. With these goals in mind, the Initiative makes grants available to community foundations, publishes information regarding youth engagement on its website, and provides links to external resources in order to provide support for communities and organizations looking to improve youth civic engagement in their own localities.

On the Initiative website, information is available on the benefits of youth civic engagement, the long-term nature of any vision for expanded youth engagement, the guiding principles for the Coalition’s work in youth engagement, and examples of different methods and approaches for youth engagement. The website also provides a model example of youth civic engagement in Hampton, Virginia (http://www.cfleads.org/ccfy/civic/yce_model.htm).

The Initiative also provides a database of suggestions for external sources of technical assistance, training, and other support (http://www.cfleads.org/ccfy/civic/yce_resources.htm). Since 2000, the Coalition has made grants of more than $555,000 to 14 community foundations; however, it is currently not accepting proposals at this time.