The Civic Engagement Initiative (CEI) was established in 2002 as a non-partisan effort to increase voter participation in Boston and Chelsea’s most disadvantaged communities. Since its inception the CEI has funded over a dozen community-based organizations to register, educate, and turnout voters as a vehicle for creating change on issues such as affordable housing, quality public education, job creation, and city services.
The Young Civic Leaders, a program of MassVOTE, gives youth the tools that they need to become leaders in their communities. Through active participation in trainings, workshops, and project-based learning, Young Civic Leaders become agents of change in their communities. Young Civic Leaders educate, organize and mobilize their peers to become civically engaged in their neighborhoods.
YCL is an 11-month paid internship for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Young Civic Leaders commit to working 10 hours a week during the school year and 20 hours a week during the summer. Each participant must maintain at least a C+ grade average. Upon graduation and admission to college, Young Civic Leaders are eligible for a scholarship from MassVOTE.
WHAT MAKES YCL UNIQUE?
YCLers develop competencies in the following key areas:
Professional Skills Development: relationship- building/networking, grant writing, budget management, event planning and organizing
Community Engagement: organizing, relationship-building with community-based organizations and volunteerism
Media Relations: press releases, T.V. , news paper, and radio interviews
Educational Activities: workshops, field trips, trainings, research and tutoring
In addition, YCL is proud to be a part of BNY Mellon CityACCESS program. Funded by The Bank of New York Mellon’s Charitable Giving Program funded through the generosity of the Arthur F. Blanchard Trust, CityACCESS is a partnership of six community-based organizations offering unique opportunities to high school students called Teen Ambassadors.
To apply, or for more information, contact Jasmine Hicks (by email at jasmine [at] massvote [dot] org or by phone at (617)542-8683x202) or click "Application" on the left column to fill out an application.
Updates!
Y.C.L Update: Pre-Registration
Faces of YCL
So what do we look like, and what do we do outside of MassVote?
Writing a birthday card for a fellow YCLer (From left to right: Ngan, Lisa, Donovan, Robeson)
Eating birthday cakes!
Training sessions for YCLers
Jasmine, Phi, and Ngan
A field trip on the Freedom Trail
Reliving American history
Typical YCL meeting
Julian, Donavan, and Dozelyn
Ngan and Luisa; behind them is a map of the great state of Massachusetts
Civies Awards Ceremony 2009
On April 23th, the Young Civic Leaders sponsored the Civies Awards to honor youth programs in Massachusetts that have made a powerful, positive contribution. Over 100 youth and adult supporters attended the ceremony, hosted at Northeastern University's Dodge Hall. Awards were given for groups that work on issues including public safety, social justice, leadership, education, and arts. Individual awards were given to special leaders who have served youth with distinction. We congratulate all the winners and nominees!
The nominees included:
Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth (CAPAY), Asian Voices of Organized Youth for Community Empowerment (A-VOYCE), Mayor’s Youth CouncilBostonCommunity Center for Justice (BCCJ), Teens in Print, Zumix, Youth Design Boston, Project Hip Hop, Critical Breakdown, Youth and Government, Sociedad Latina, Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC), Chelsea Collaborative, Citizens Schools, Year up, Upward Bound, Bottomline, Close to Home, Mission Safe, Beantown Society
For the video introduction of nominees, click here
George Watsky, Malia Lazu, Chikaelo Ibeabuchi, Oscar Brazoban and Jesus Gerena
And winner of this year's Super Civie, for overall achievement in the service of Boston's youth, was:
The Hyde Square Task Force
YCL Application
APPLICATION DEADLINE
June 4, 2010
Young Civic Leaders
Year-long, paid internships available
Young Civic Leaders is a program that gives diverse high-school youth an opportunity to come together with other youth from across Boston and learn about democracy, gain leadership and job skills in a professional environment.
Young Civic Leaders work 10 hours each week from October to August at MassVOTE, which is located near City Hall and convenient to public transportation.Young Civic Leaders are paid $9 per hour. In return for their work, all Young Civic Leaders are mentored and supported.Each year, Young Civic Leaders learn about voting and democracy, and then present Get-Out-The-Vote trainings and reach out to other youth to help them vote and participate. Young Civic Leaders are also given time and support with homework and college applications.
MassVOTE is a non-partisan education organization that works to eliminate barriers and encourage voting, especially among communities of color, language minorities, low income communities, youth, new American citizens, and the disabled. Young Civic Leaders help MassVOTE work for justice.
Young Civic Leaders do research, youth organizing, office work, advocacy, and talk with neighbors and peers to ask them to vote and participate. Each intern is given a specific project to work on, and paired with a staff supervisor. All Young Civic Leaders work together to organize an annual civic engagement event for youth. They come to MassVOTE every Friday afternoon for trainings and leadership-related movies.They assist senior staff on different projects.Each month, they take a civic quiz. At the end of the year, they develop their own presentation and present it on Parents’ Night.
All Participants must earn and keep at least a C+ average, and should be creative, dependable, responsible, able to take initiative, and enjoy meeting new people and working in teams.
To get an application or find out more, contact Jasmine Hicks at jasmine [at] massvote [dot] org or call at (617) 542-8683 ext. 202.
In cooperation with the Boston Foundation, the Access Strategies Fund, the Hyams Foundation, and the Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation, MassVOTE provides civic engagement grants to some non-profit organizations to conduct non-partisan voter registration, voter education, and voter mobilization to build power in their communities and increase civic engagement.
Donations may be made to a donor advised fund at the Boston Foundation. Monies in the fund are divided as such: two-thirds of the money go to organizations as grants and one-third of the money helps organizations access the latest technology, tech assistance, one-on-one coaching, and training provided by massvote staff and volunteers.
To read about our latest success click the following links to read the new report:
Why are nonprofits so important to ensuring a complete and accurate count in the 2010 Census? And why are nonprofits so well suited to this task? Clink on the link below to download the fact sheet.
Why is the Census so important to the nonprofit community?
Lower income and more mobile populations, precisely those served by many nonprofits, are frequently undercounted by the census, leading to underfunding of critical services and infrastructure and under-representation in government. Nonprofits can play an important role in making sure their communities are fully and accurately counted by educating them on the importance of the census and how to participate.
How is Census data used?
The data collected by the Census next year will be used to determine a host of issues critical to the nonprofits community, including but not limited to:
Decisions about what community services to provide, and how to distribute over $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year for the next 10 years! Examples include spending on:
Title 1 grants to educational agencies (school districts across the nation)
Head Start programs
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) (food grants)
Public transportation
Road rehabilitation and construction
Programs for the elderly
Emergency food and shelter
Empowerment zone
The drawing of Congressional, State House and State Senate district lines
Distribution of Congressional seats to states
What can nonprofit organizations do?
Partner with the Census
It’s simple: sign up with your Local Census Office and receive the most up-to-date information on how to engage your community in the 2010 Census on www.NonprofitsCount.org
Add to Your Communications Where: Website, E-Updates, Newsletters What: Key deadlines, websites to go to, Drop In articles When: Basic info now; more urgency in late fall and 2010
Have Information in Your Office
Sample Census forms
Signage promoting Census participation
Contact information for local Census offices
Information on job opportunities
Distribute Promotional Materials
Promotional items are synonymous with the decennial census. Request these items from your Local Census Office (LCO) and begin distributing them to your communities. Items available include: chip clips, bags, stickers, balloons, pens, pencils, window decals, etc.
Host Community Events
Hosting community events and forums can be a great tool for educating people about the 2010 Census. MassVOTE, your Census Bureau Partnership Specialist and the Local Census Office can be great partners in these.
Be a Questionnaire Assistance Center (or “Be Counted Center”) 30,000 Questionnaire Assistance Centers: One of your staff members can be paid by the Census to assist people in filling out and returning their form at your community-based nonprofit. 40,000 “Be Counted” Sites: “Be Counted” forms are census questionnaires available at community locations, for people who did not receive a census form in the mail or who believe they were not otherwise included on any other census questionnaire. “Be counted” forms will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian. The form should be picked up and mailed back in the attached postage-paid envelope.
Promote Jobs
Census jobs are good jobs! The 2010 census will be the largest peace-time mobilization of temporary jobs in our country’s history. The Census wants and needs to hire people from hard-to-count communities. You can help your communities find out about jobs with the Census.
Join or Form a Complete Count Committee (CCC)
A Complete Count Committee is a team of community members working together to ensure that all those in their community (however they define “community”) are counted in the 2010 Census. Join MassVOTE’s Nonprofit Sector Complete Count Committee …or form your own.
Sample Questionnaire
Have you had a look at the 2010 Census Questionnaire yet? It's one ofthe shortest Census Questionnaires in Census history, with only tenquestions. The sample form is currently available in English and in a bilingual English/Spanishversion. The actual questionnaire that will be mailed to households inMarch 2010 will be available in a wide variety of languages.
Click here for the English version and click here for the bilingual English/Spanish version.
Civic Engagement and Redistricting
In early 2011, Census data will be delivered to Beacon Hill and city and town halls across our state. The task of drawing new district lines for US Congress, State Senate, State House, City Council, and local offices will begin.
Our state will likely lose a seat in Congress. Only an active campaign to ensure Census participation can prevent this. At least 200,000 additional previously uncounted people must be persuaded to participate.
In some states, nonpartisan commissions draw lines. They work to keep towns together and maximize opportunities for people to have a voice in their government.
Sadly, Massachusetts is the birthplace of gerrymandering, a process where legislators choose their voters, reducing competition and diluting accountability. After botching the 2001 redistricting process, the state was forced to redraw its district lines after a federal court ruled the state had violated the rights of African Americans in Mattapan.
Engagement is the key. First, we must ensure maximum participation in the Census. Then, we must make certain that members of the public learn about redistricting and engage.
Across Massachusetts, in cities like Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and Lowell, better districts can give Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and low-income neighbors a voice in government.
In the last redistricting process, MassVOTE, a nonpartisan 501c3 civic education and civil rights organization, brought together the NAACP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the Chelsea Collaborative and many others to educate the public about redistricting. Our 2011 redistricting task force has already begun to meet.
Funders concerned about civic engagement and civil rights can support research, education, and advocacy to ensure fair redistricting.
Election Day Reform
In 2008, over 10,000 Massachusetts citizens showed upat their polling place to vote, only to discover theywere not registered. They registered that day, butcould not vote.
Click here to download anElection Day Registration fact sheet.
Click here to download a petitionsupporting Election Day Registration.
Click here to read about thewidespread success of Election Day Registration inthe 2008 Presidential Election
Census 2010
What makes the census so important? Well, the datacollected by the census next year will be used todetermine a host of issues. In particular, the amountof federal funding available to the state ofMassachusetts for services, such as educational grants,depends largely upon the results of the census. Take alook at the MassVOTE Census 2010 informationpage and be informed!
MassVOTE Gears Up for 2010 Census
TheUS Census determines how many member of Congress each state gets andhow many federal dollars go to each state for healthcare, roads,subaways, schools, and more. In 2007 alone, each person who replied tothe last Census earned 1,493.61 in federal funds for our state. MassVOTE is leading the fight to make sure every Massachusetts residentis counted. Find out more.
New Report
Highest Municipal Election Voter Turnout in Boston Since 1993
Check out MassVOTE'sNew Report to see where people voted and why in the 2009 race for Mayor and City Council in Boston.
Nonprofits Count Kick-offEvent!
On Wednesday, September 16, MassVOTE held its censuskickoff event at the Boston Foundation.
Looking to learn more about the movement for a nationalpopular vote? Click here for a description ofthe proposed bill, as well as a plethora ofeditorials and reports on the subject.
Eye on Democracy is a video contest where contestants are asked to create a 2-3 minute video reflecting the voting experience, positive and negative, of voters in Massachusetts on Election Day, November 4th. Eye on Democracy is a project of MassVote in coordination with: Suffolk University, The Hyams Foundation, Access Strategies Fund and The Boston Foundation.
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Have you had a look at the 2010 Census Questionnaire yet? It's one ofthe shortest Census Questionnaires in Census history, with only tenquestions. The sample form is currently available in English and in a bilingual English/Spanishversion. The actual questionnaire that will be mailed to households inMarch 2010 will be available in a wide variety of languages.
