Future Focused Education believes schools should serve as anchors in the development of healthy and thriving communities, functioning as infrastructure that enables students to solve real world problems as part of their learning. Youth Civic Infrastructure (YCI) supports reciprocal collaborations between nonprofits and schools to engage students in community experiences through capstone projects and internships. 

YCI provides single and multi-year grants to nonprofit organizations that desire to integrate young people and schools more directly into their existing work. Capstone projects embedded in the community and co-designed by schools and nonprofits support a deepening of youth civic infrastructure that centers community relevance in learning. In this process, young people become a primary mechanism for leading positive change in the communities they live in by:

• Investigating community issues through action-oriented research.
• Deepening their understanding of the community.
• Cultivating a sense of belonging and commitment to the community.
• Identifying and implementing solutions.

The application for 2025 1-year Exploration Grants will open on June 16 and close July 14, with grantees selected and announced in early August. Nonprofit/school partnerships that are awarded Exploration Grants will be eligible to apply for 3-year Implementation grants in 2026.

Youth Civic Infrastructure supercharges school capstone programs by connecting student projects directly to community opportunities and providing resources to nonprofits to support student learning and employment challenges. Ideally, partner schools will have an existing capstone instructor in place and the flexibility to allow students to participate in internships. 

For schools that are still developing capstone approaches, Future Focused can also provide deep technical support and Communities of Practice (CoPs) to enable them to accelerate that development.

There is no better way to integrate young people deeply into the work of nonprofit organizations than through YCI. Selected nonprofits make a commitment to work with students at a partner high school and are provided unrestricted funds to support the work. 

The funding covers the cost of paid internships for some students, with the nonprofit able to apply the remaining unrestricted grant funds to support its internal capacity. Interns work for 13 weeks with the nonprofit, learning as they take on challenges that impact their communities, building a deeper understanding of the issue and establishing a relationship with the organization that can extend beyond the internship.

In the news: check out coverage of the YCI capstone project in Aztec! 

Are you a high school or nonprofit interested in learning more about capstone projects and how they can connect to the Youth Civic Infrastructure? Please contact us at: [email protected].