Building a pipeline of social change makers through leadership and community service https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2016/building-a-pipeline-of-social-change-makers-through-leadership-and-community-service https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Building a pipeline of social change makers through leadership and community service

Additional Information
Used for	Big Citizen HUB connects youth from across Los Angeles, empowering them to be contributing members of society by cultivating leadership skills and creating an environment to tackle pressing civic challenges. In 2017, 236 youth, ages 11-26, will come together to learn about the diversity of each other, the city, and it’s issues. Through partnerships with over 50 local nonprofits, we’ll give Big Citizens the skills and place to develop and lead service projects, allowing them to see that they can have a positive impact on the community, setting the stage for future action.
Benefits	Los Angeles, like many cities, is divided– racially, socially, economically. We need more opportunities for people to connect to better understand each other and the complexities of these issues. Big Citizen HUB activates our most precious resource – youth – bringing them together with dialogue, leadership, and service, giving them the skills and opportunity to change the way we address each other and these critical social challenges.
Proposal Description	Organization Mission, Activities, and History: The mission of Big Citizen HUB is to build a community of Big Citizens, expanding the social capital of youth through curiosity, gratitude, team, and adventure. Big Citizen HUB brings together young people, outside of school, from all over Los Angeles to learn a common civic language, engage in dialogue, and build community to investigate local and global challenges ranging from poverty to environmental issues. We believe that participating as a Big Citizen will improve participants' awareness of and sensitivity to community issues; and will enhance their motivation, capacity and commitment to take action, alone and with others, to address those issues. Big Citizen HUB convenes on Saturdays between January and July. Big Citizens form diverse teams, serve a minimum of 100 hours, and complete team-based projects. Middle school-aged Big Citizens work through issues in monthly modules that incorporate interactive learning, active service projects, and individual and team reflection. During the final months of the program, our middle school teams work together to explore a topic of their choosing, developing service projects to address their issue. High school-aged Big Citizens are placed on teams that explore one issue in great depth throughout the year. During the final six weeks of the high school program, teams partner with local community organizations to complete capacity building projects. These externships provide more experiential, in-depth learning opportunities for our older youth, while providing nonprofit partners with the resources needed to take on an additional project of need. Upon completion of the program, Big Citizens graduate earning the President’s Volunteer Service Award. In January 2015, Big Citizen HUB launched with 75 middle school participants and 13 team leaders, ages 19-26. In 2016 we increased our impact by growing our middle school program and launching our high school program, serving a total of 170 youth ages 11-18. In 2017, we aim to serve a total of 236 young people ages 11-26. Big Citizen HUB is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides the structure and a full range of essential services that allow nonprofit projects large and small to get up and running quickly and keep leaders focused on mission. Objectives: Over the course of 22 Saturdays between January and July, we focus on increasing Big Citizens’ civic knowledge and personal agency. To address this need we seek to do the following: -Place youth on diverse teams, led by two near-peer mentors who support the building of an effective team and program-wide culture -Address concerns about cultural competency by exposing youth to different groups, perspectives, cultures, and ideas that they may not otherwise have access to -Ensure Big Citizens are given the space to learn, practice, and demonstrate civic leadership skills, such as public speaking, mobilization, information literacy, social media usage, conflict resolution, and team leadership -Give Big Citizens the resources to explore, serve, and reflect on social justice issues -Provide Big Citizens a place to demonstrate and implement local solutions to local problems, so that they can immediately see how their actions can have a positive impact on the community, setting the stage for future action -Complete youth-led service projects (middle school) and externships (high school) -Partner with 50+ external community organizations -Retain 80% of youth, graduating 189 Big Citizens in July who have each served 100+ hours with Big Citizen HUB Big Citizens will address the following social issues in 2017: Animal Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Food Justice, Homelessness, Immigration, and LGBTQ+ Equality. Target Audience: In FY17 we aim to activate a total of 236 youth, ages 11-26. We have created a space in Los Angeles for young people to come together and engage with peers from different backgrounds to learn from each other and have a collective impact. As diversity is a key component of our program, continuing to diversify the group will be a priority to ensure that we reflect the makeup of the city. Based on past participation, we expect our 2017 Big Citizens to represent the following demographic and geographic goals: -50+ zip codes within LA County -87% socioeconomically disadvantaged -60% female, 40% male -75% Latino, 10% Asian, 5% African American, 5% Caucasian, 5% multiracial The National Institutes of Health found that between the ages of 12 and 25, people are literally wired for excitement, novelty, risk, and peer authority. These traits make young people uniquely suited to solve problems, if given the opportunity. Excitement and novelty leads to learning new things and creating new solutions. Risk leads to trying things adults might not. Peer authority leads to changing behaviors. Big Citizen HUB harnesses these youth assets and positive peer networks through dialogue, community immersion, diversity, and teamwork, while activating youth to address the critical issues dividing our cities – ultimately contributing to a more just, open, and connected society. Grant Request: Big Citizen HUB respectfully requests $5,000 from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation for general operating support for our youth leadership development program.