Voter Summit for Chester County Students

C70 was honored to partner with New Voters, PA Youth Vote, the Fund for Women and Girls, and the Chester County elections office for the first ever Chester County High School Voting Summit this week.

Students and administrators from nearly 10 high schools in Chester County broke into groups to gain hands-on training on running voter registration drives at their school. Students who are interested in doing these at their school can do so through the New Voters Fellowship. New Voters also has a number of other programs to bring these opportunities to schools across the Commonwealth.

Students at the summit also cast the first ballots of the statewide PA Youth Mock Election. With roughly equal students choosing Democratic and Republican ballots, it gave an interesting preview into several of the contested statewide races this primary season. Make sure to sign up your class to participate in your own mock election.

Civic Learning Week activities from PA Civics partners

Thank you for participating in Civic Learning Week with the Committee of Seventy and our partners through PA Civics.

Can We Talk?: Program co-director Chris Satullo and student moderators discussed how this program introduces students to skills that promote productive dialogue across difference. Watch the recording.

Democracy for Kids: C70 Lead Educator Anne Spector led a teacher panel discussion about our Democracy for Kids program for grades K-8. Watch the recording.

Experiential Civics: This webinar focused on C70’s experiential civics resources for middle and high schools. Philadelphia Councilmember Rue Landau, PA Youth Vote's Tom Quinn, and Nathan Salamone of the National Constitution Center’s Teacher Advisory Council provided a rich background on different resources to teach elections. Watch the recording.

Elsewhere, The Rendell Center and the Pennsylvania Bar Association joined forces with the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) for virtual Read-Alouds about civics subjects in K-5 classrooms across PA.

James Coan, Executive Director of More Like US, was a panelist for a discussion of simple ways to discuss policy and politics in the classroom. Hear James’ thoughts on how to use More like US’s resources for teaching about the “perception gap” when the panel is released as a podcast by the Arizona State Center for American Civics on March 25th.

SDP's Voter Champion Program

The School District of Philadelphia has created an opportunity for teachers to make a meaningful impact on its students through a paid High School Voter Champion position. For educators who are passionate about civic engagement and committed to empowering youth, they can apply to serve for the rest of the school year. This unique role can be an example to other school districts around the Commonwealth; your school board could implement this model for teachers to play a pivotal role in promoting student-led voter registration, disseminating non-partisan voting information, and organizing voter engagement activities within your school. SDP teachers, please submit this form. If you would like to learn more about how this initiative developed and to think about how to bring this to your district, please contact Tom Quinn.