Teaching and Sustaining Youth Civic Engagement

During every presidential campaign, it seems as though there is a concerted and organized effort to mobilize the youth vote. “Vote or Die” and “Rock the Vote” are just a few examples of “get out the vote” campaign drives. Unfortunately, once election day passes, so too does the effort to mobilize the youth masses.

While voting is an essential component of civic engagement, it is not the only way for youth to participate in democracy and their communities. Youth civic engagement is the process of mobilizing youth for the purpose of influencing policy and/or taking action on issues within their communities. Because it is difficult to sustain youth involvement beyond an election cycle, Los Angeles is trying to foster and sustain youth civic engagement through its neighborhood council system.

On May 25, 2001, the City of Los Angeles adopted a citywide system of neighborhood councils (NCs) to enhance the quality of life in neighborhoods by fostering democratic participation and the ability for stakeholders to impact local decision-making. A stakeholder is defined as an individual who lives, works or owns property within the boundaries of a neighborhood council. Neighborhood councils play two important roles in Los Angeles. First, they are given the opportunity to articulate their budget priorities to the Mayor during the budget process. Second, they can submit Community Impact Statements as a matter of public record on issues that affect their communities. There are currently 86 certified neighborhood councils in the city.

In May 2006, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) asked me to develop a comprehensive training curriculum for NCs including workshops that would promote diversity in NCs. A 2004 midterm status report found that NCs in Los Angeles lacked demographic diversity. At the same time, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was implementing his Learn and Earn program and sought DONE’s assistance in providing leadership training to its youth participants. The Learn and Earn Program is designed to offer low-performing students academic tutoring in the morning and paid internship experience in the afternoon for six weeks during the summer. The goal of the program is to serve “at-risk” students by offering them academic assistance and vocational training. In the course of my discussions with the Mayor’s Office, it occurred to me that the Learn and Earn Program could serve as a way to diversify participation in neighborhood councils by providing youth with civic engagement training and instruction. This portion of the program was called Youth Civic Engagement in Neighborhood Councils.

I developed a civic engagement curriculum and materials that would be presented to the Learn and Earn Program instructors who were comprised of teachers and counselors from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In turn, the instructors provided the civic engagement training to the youth participating in the Learn and Earn program. The instruction consisted of information about the neighborhood council system and participatory democracy, and a civic involvement activity for students. The civic engagement activity required that the students: 1) identify their local neighborhood council; 2) research the issues that were on the agenda at a meeting; 3) attend and possibly participate in a council meeting such as voicing public comment on an issue or interviewing a board member; and 4) write a reflection paper about their experiences.

The purpose of the civic engagement activity was two-fold. First, it was meant to expose students to their local neighborhood council and the issues that affect their communities. Students were asked to fill out and return to DONE surveys that gauged their awareness of and interest in neighborhood councils and community involvement. The majority of the returned surveys suggest positive youth attitudes about civic engagement. More specifically, the surveys indicated that it was the lack of awareness about opportunities NOT lack of interest that was the primary barrier to youth involvement in their communities. Second, DONE hoped that the activity would inspire youth to remain involved in their neighborhood councils as stakeholders because many NCs have youth representatives on their boards. The training also generated enthusiasm from the LAUSD instructors about the Youth Civic Engagement in Neighborhood Councils project that extended beyond the summer. Instructors became interested in establishing long-term partnerships between their schools and local NCs, particularly since each neighborhood council receives $50,000 per budget year that can be used to fund school-related projects including tree plantings, graffiti removal and education fairs.

During the summer of 2006, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment’s Youth Civic Engagement in Neighborhood Councils training (in collaboration with the Learn and Earn Program) served more than 5,000 youth in the City of Los Angeles and is anticipated to resume in summer of 2007. Fostering collaborations between schools and neighborhood councils on education-related projects provides an incentive for LAUSD teachers and counselors to promote and sustain youth involvement in neighborhood councils that extends beyond the Learn and Earn Program. While presidential campaigns generate most of the attention when it comes to mobilizing youth, this project illustrates that local governments can work to sustain youth involvement in civic life for the long-term benefit of their communities. The project becomes essential not just in “getting out the vote,” but also in getting youth involved with the politics they would otherwise ignore.

Haco Hoang, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Political Science Department at California Lutheran University. This article can be found in the June issue of The Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education.