KIDS VOTING -- WHERE CIVICS STARTS

We are the local affiliate of Kids Voting USA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civics education organization. We collaborate with educators, parents, community leaders, civic organizations, elected officials and election boards to create civic skill-building opportunities for students.

Our combination of classroom instruction, family dialogue, and an authentic voting experience for youth makes Kids Voting a powerful strategy for achieving long-term change in voting behavior!

Beginings
On a fishing trip in Costa Rica, three Americans discovered the country's voter turnout rate was about 80%, due to a tradition of parents taking their kids to the polls on Election Day. Based on this experience, Kids Voting USA was founded in 1988. Local citizens brought the program to Central Ohio in 2000.

Mission
Our mission is to create lifelong, informed voters among today’s youth; support educators in teaching the rights and responsibilities of citizenship; stimulate political awareness among children and adults; and increase participation in our democracy.

Programs
Our classroom lessons and at-home activities encourage lifelong habits of participating in the civic life of the community. The program’s “trickle-up” impact has been shown to improve students’ political knowledge and skills and empower them to motivate parents and others to do the same.  Our major programs are:

	Classroom Activities
	The highly-acclaimed Kids Voting curriculum activities (K-12) are provided to participating schools at no charge. These lessons help meet Ohio academic content standards for social studies, language arts and technology. We also offer training for teachers through workshops tailored to the school’s needs.
	Election Activities
	Students learn how to research information on candidates and issues, talk with parents and other adults about elections and voting, and engage in a simulated election in the schools.
	Youth at the Booth
	We recruit and train high school seniors to work as precinct officials at the polls for the Franklin County Board of Elections. This real-life learning activity engages students in the election and motivates them to become lifelong voters when they reach voting age. Over 4,000 high school students have worked at the polls in the since 2006.
	Youth Summit
	We sponsor an annual event to empower high school juniors and seniors to take an active part in the public affairs of their community.Preliminary information on the Fall 2009 Youth Summit will be posted in August. Teachers interested in bringing students should send an email to contact@kidsvotingoh.org.