Creating Voter Engagement Tools by Collaborating with a Non-Partisan Organization to Reach Young Voters

Summary

In this civics-focused Community-Centered Project, students in an American Government class partnered with the League of Women Voters to address the challenge of increasing voter registration and turnout among young people. After an initial presentation from League representatives outlining the nonpartisan problem, students collaborated in groups to brainstorm innovative, youth-focused solutions.

Over several class sessions, students developed and refined a wide range of outreach strategies—including social media campaigns, wearable promotions, videos, and poetry—to motivate their peers to register and vote. On October 4, they presented their proposals to the League and received constructive feedback. Several student creations were later implemented or publicly shared by the League, including a poem published in their online newsletter and a video featured on their YouTube channel.

The project offered students an authentic platform to apply their knowledge of government, civic responsibility, and media strategy to real-world advocacy efforts, while helping a community organization strengthen its youth engagement efforts.

Takeaways

Skills students left with after this experience:

1. Collaboration on a project
2. Serving a client and meeting their needs
3. Creating presentation
4. Oral presentation
5. Receiving constructive feedback
6. Understanding the importance of voting and participating in the political process and government

Advice

Jump in and try. Ask questions to people who have done this before. People are very willing to share their experiences.