Election year curriculum available to local high schools
www.arkansasnewsroom.com
Since 1994, the Washitaw Foothills Youth Media Arts & Literacy Collective (www.WFYMALC.org) has worked to activate the youth electorate in Arkansas through its Voter Registration, Education and Participation Program. This year, the collective has partnered with The Civics Center (www.thecivicscenter.org), a national non-partisan non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, to introduce National High School Voter Registration Week to Arkansas.
National High School Voter Registration Week has been held in over two dozen U.S. states since 2019, and it was founded by The Civics Center, a collective of current and former social studies teachers, school principals, and superintendents.
For the last month, representatives have been meeting with multiple Arkansas school superintendents, principals, and election coordinators to plan an inaugural observance of National High School Voter Registration Week here in Arkansas to prepare students for the upcoming November election.
“When you consider that during the 2020 general election, less than half of the 18-24 year-old voting population here in Arkansas were even registered to vote, you are missing quite a few young people whose voices have been silenced,” said Kwami Abdul-Bey, the co-founder of the collective, “Today, there are an estimated 40,769 young people who will have turned 18 years old by election day, and if we do not do something different here in Arkansas, nearly 20,000 eligible high school students could be denied their right to vote.”
The Civics Center will provide free interactive and practical curriculum resources to help support high school students, and their teachers, organize non-partisan, youth-led voter registration drives in their high schools and the surrounding communities.
Coupled with the registration drives, Abdul-Bey has worked with a few county election coordinators to establish a pilot High School Election Page Community Service Program where several dozen high school students will receive full election worker training and work at the polls from the beginning of early voting to election day. Participating high school students will receive academic credit, volunteer LEARNS Act hours, and additional excused absences for the days that they work at the polls. Additionally, those who are 18 years old will also get paid.
The first public school district to begin planning to bring both of these programs is the Pulaski County Special School District where it will offer them at Joe T. Robinson, Maumelle, Mills and Sylvan Hills high schools.
For more information, contact Abdul-Bey at kwami@WFYMALC.org or 501-725-1337.
Election year curriculum available to local high schools
Election year curriculum available to local high schools
Election year curriculum available to local high schools
Since 1994, the Washitaw Foothills Youth Media Arts & Literacy Collective (www.WFYMALC.org) has worked to activate the youth electorate in Arkansas through its Voter Registration, Education and Participation Program. This year, the collective has partnered with The Civics Center (www.thecivicscenter.org), a national non-partisan non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, to introduce National High School Voter Registration Week to Arkansas.
National High School Voter Registration Week has been held in over two dozen U.S. states since 2019, and it was founded by The Civics Center, a collective of current and former social studies teachers, school principals, and superintendents.
For the last month, representatives have been meeting with multiple Arkansas school superintendents, principals, and election coordinators to plan an inaugural observance of National High School Voter Registration Week here in Arkansas to prepare students for the upcoming November election.
“When you consider that during the 2020 general election, less than half of the 18-24 year-old voting population here in Arkansas were even registered to vote, you are missing quite a few young people whose voices have been silenced,” said Kwami Abdul-Bey, the co-founder of the collective, “Today, there are an estimated 40,769 young people who will have turned 18 years old by election day, and if we do not do something different here in Arkansas, nearly 20,000 eligible high school students could be denied their right to vote.”
The Civics Center will provide free interactive and practical curriculum resources to help support high school students, and their teachers, organize non-partisan, youth-led voter registration drives in their high schools and the surrounding communities.
Coupled with the registration drives, Abdul-Bey has worked with a few county election coordinators to establish a pilot High School Election Page Community Service Program where several dozen high school students will receive full election worker training and work at the polls from the beginning of early voting to election day. Participating high school students will receive academic credit, volunteer LEARNS Act hours, and additional excused absences for the days that they work at the polls. Additionally, those who are 18 years old will also get paid.
The first public school district to begin planning to bring both of these programs is the Pulaski County Special School District where it will offer them at Joe T. Robinson, Maumelle, Mills and Sylvan Hills high schools.
For more information, contact Abdul-Bey at kwami@WFYMALC.org or 501-725-1337.