Learn more about Youth Civic Infrastructure, how your school and a nonprofit partner can get involved, and how young people lead change in their communities. We also look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas.

Who should attend? Teachers interested in partnering with nonprofit organizations, nonprofit leaders, school administrators, and anyone involved in community engagement or youth leadership initiatives.

Future Focused Education believes schools should serve as anchors in the development of healthy and thriving communities. We want schools to be places where students solve real world problems as part of their learning. The Youth Civic Infrastructure (YCI) develops reciprocal collaborations between nonprofits and schools to engage students in community experiences through capstone projects and internships. 

The YCI provides 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 civic infrastructure that centers community relevance. 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 YCIF 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, FFE can also provide deep technical support and Communities of Practice to enable them to accelerate that development. Schools are selected in April of every year, with an annual program launch in August.

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

The program covers the cost of paid internships for students so the nonprofit can apply its grant to its own internal capacity. Interns work for 13 weeks with the nonprofit, learning as they take on challenges that impact their communities and 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].