The Civic Spring Project was featured on MSNBC in August. WW President Rajiv Vinnakota and Civic Spring Project youth grantee Emanuelle Sippy were interviewed by Brian Williams and Nicole Wallace during an afternoon MSNBC Live segment. You can see the full interview in the video above.

Mr. Vinnakota outlined the need to focus on helping youth build their civic knowledge and skills during what Mr. Williams called “a real life civics lesson:” the pandemic, calls for racial justice, and the upcoming election. Mr. Vinnakota highlighted the importance of giving youth a seat at the table to design their civic learning and help better their communities. Ms. Sippy represented the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team. Their Civic Spring Project grant is funding a two part survey of Kentucky students to better understand the impact of virtual learning on students. The Team recently presenting their findings to the Kentucky Board of Education and plans to use the data they gather to make additional policy recommendations.

The Civic Spring Project was developed with the collective goal of creating a program that will catalyze summer civic learning experiences, especially in light of COVID-19. Because schools and localities—the systems typically leading civic learning programs—continue to experience stress and fatigue from combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation and its partners want to tap into a group eager to help communities make productive change: youth.

After a national selection process, the WW Foundation awarded grants to six youth-led initiatives across the country working creatively over the summer to engage young people building their own civic capacities while strengthening their community. Each project is facilitating hands-on learning opportunities to build the civic knowledge, dispositions, and skills young people need to flourish as effective and committed community members.

The Civic Spring Project Grantees include Groundwork Elizabeth (Elizabeth, NJ); Institute for Engagement (Houston, TX); Kinston Teens (Kinston, NC); Newark Youth One Stop and Career Center (Newark, NJ); Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence (Lexington, KY); and Youthprise (Minneapolis, MN). You can follow along with each of the grantee projects at civic-spring.org/journey and support WW’s civic learning work here.

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