This study tells the story of the transformation of a substantial group of young people. Today they are exemplary civic leaders. A significant number of them hold public office or are church leaders, such as pastors. More than one third are professional educators or youth workers. Almost all are leaders in their families, workplaces, and…

This paper was developed in the interest of extending the reach and benefits of national and community service programs to larger numbers of persons from disadvantaged populations. In particular, this paper is intended to increase understanding of both challenges and opportunities that may accompany efforts to increase the participation by…

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote…

This fact sheet presents information on the frequency of volunteering, trends in volunteering, and the organizations for which young people volunteer, utilizing data from multiple sources. Unlike many surveys, it shows that volunteering rates among young people are generally higher than they are among adults 26 and older. Findings of the Civic and…

By and large, scholars of electoral behavior and civil society consider education to be the key predictor of civic participation. Indeed, civic education is held to be a fundamental institution of all deliberative democracies. Yet after decades of empirical research, we still know little about the causal mechanisms through which education fosters…

For more than 250 years, Americans have shared a vision of a democracy in which all citizens understand, appreciate, and engage actively in civic and political life. In recent decades, however, increasing numbers of Americans have disengaged from civic and political institutions such as voluntary associations, religious congregations,…

The idea of a set of skills, usually called civic skills, which are required to effectively participate in civic and political life, is integral to many concepts of political participation. This literature search is designed to investigate what is known about civic skills empirically and theoretically including how they are defined and measured,…