A consortium of four organizations—Campus Compact, the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU), Education Commission of the States (ECS), and Generation Citizen—are launching an initiative to advance civic learning and student success across the education continuum.

The initiative is grounded in the understanding that civic learning is both intrinsically important and is a powerful way to deepen students’ engagement in their own education, thereby promoting their overall success. The initiative is a team-based approach designed to support local education partnerships through an Action Summit and complementary learning communities.

Building on the State Civic Education Policy Framework developed by ECS and the Action Civics curriculum of Generation Citizen, the consortium will bring together teams representing cities or regions to develop a collaborative approach for civic learning across all levels of education. Teams will include representatives from colleges or universities, K-12 systems or schools, and other appropriate local entities, such as local governments, local philanthropies, and youth-serving organizations. The central purpose of the partnerships is to make experiential civic learning an expected part of students’ learning throughout school and college.

To enable participation in the Summit by broad-based urban and regional teams, the consortium is making available small grants to cover participants’ travel and lodging expenses. While the applicants for these grants will be institutions of higher education, funds will be used to cover the expenses of all participants, particularly those who cannot access institutional or organizational funds for this purpose.

Mini-grant applications should contain the following information:

• Project Lead at applicant institution. The Project Lead will be the point of contact for project information for the team.
• Team members and rationales for participation. Teams must consist of five to ten individuals, including representatives from at least one higher education institution and one school or school system. Teams may include representatives from several higher education institutions, several schools or school systems, other public offices or agencies, youth-serving organizations, and other locally relevant entities. Teams may include students. In this section of the application, teams should identify all team members and provide a brief rationale for each member’s participation. Please describe how these institutions and individuals have collaborated in the past.
• Motivation for participation. A brief statement (no more than 500 words) of why the team and its constituent organizations wish to participate in this project.
• Letters of commitment from CEOs. The application must be accompanied by a letter from the CEO of each of the institutions or organizations represented on the team. The letter must indicate that the CEO will support the organization’s continued participation in the project and will enable the team member to contribute to its development. The letter should also include an explanation of the importance to the organization of advancing civic learning and success through a partnership focused on experiential civic learning.

Timeline:

• September 30, 2015: Mini-grant requests are due to Campus Compact. Please send submissions to Rania Ezzo at rezzo@compact.org.
• October 7, 2015: Teams will be notified of awards.
• November 18, 2015: Action Summit in Baltimore, MD.
• November 2015 – On-going: Participant resource sharing.

For more information on the Urban and Regional Partnerships for Civic Learning and Student Success Civic Partnership initiative, its goals, and more, click here.