The Civics Center

The Civics Center is empowering young people through civics education. With this grant, TCC will collaborate with educators to support student-led voter registration drives and create STEAM-supported extra-curricular civic engagement opportunities based on voter registration statistics, civics education, and leadership skills. By combining the real-world skills of organizing a drive with the data-driven exploration of voter registration statistics, we can make voter registration a part of every LA County student's high school experience.

Youth voter registration disparities between high and low income schools in LA County reflect a significant impediment to the most vulnerable Angelenos to engage in our democracy and advocate for themselves through our election process. We empower high school students to be youth democracy leaders, organizing their peers to use existing laws that allow young people to preregister to vote beginning at age 16 and we give educators the tools they need to support these students and lay a sustainable foundation for future youth civic leadership.

The biggest obstacle to youth voting is not apathy; it’s voter registration. Seventy-five percent of 18-year-olds who were registered to vote turned out to vote in Los Angeles County in the 2020 general election. We empower high school students to be youth democracy leaders, organizing their peers to use existing laws that allow young people to preregister to vote beginning at age 16.

California allows eligible 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote. State law requires high schools to identify a person responsible for distributing voter registration cards. Yet most high schools do not have the resources or training to implement these laws. The Civics Center has launched a pilot project to provide resources to empower students and school communities to take ownership of their future and take advantage of these laws. We propose to expand this work throughout LA County.