The Institute for Citizens & Scholars
Project Title
For a project to support the Civic Spring Fellowship to address a significant civic participation opportunity gap nationwide
Date
Dec. 12, 2024
Duration
24 months
Description
In June 2020, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars launched the Civic Spring Fellowship (CSF) to strengthen democracy by developing a critical mass of young people who are civically well-informed, productively engaged, and committed to our shared future. Through an annual, ten-week summer fellowship experience, CSF has recruited nearly 300 young people who have worked to address urgent problems they have identified in their communities. Fellows are provided with funding, access to networking with peers and civic leaders, and intensive mentoring from expert coaches and program staff so that they develop the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that will support their civic participation in future years. Corporation funding will support the launch of CSF 2.0, tentatively renamed the Carnegie NextGen Civic Engagement Corps, with a focus on scalability and sustainability as we approach the country’s 250th anniversary. The program will shift to a year-round model and will expand to serve a total of 500 Fellows annually. The program will recruit and activate aspiring young civic leaders in all fifty states and Washington, D.C. by 2026.