2025 DMV Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking

Are you a Washington DC-area resident and in 8th-12th grade, or of that age?

Want to develop your voice, learn a lot, get community service hours plus a chance to win awards including $100 cash, and have fun meeting diverse youth throughout the DC region?

Then RSVP to take part in the 2025 DMV Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking!

Note: Deadline to RSVP and pay is midnight, Wednesday, September 24.  Details below.

Context

By several measures, the United States is undergoing a democracy crisis, including rising polarization, proliferating disinformation, lack of public civic knowledge, longstanding inequality in civic participation, and declining trust in government, media and other institutions, among other problems.  In many cases, these problems are acute among American youth.

American youth have always grown up in unequal communities, but those inequalities are getting worse, leading to vastly different family, health, safety, education and work experiences and outcomes.  For instance, average life expectancy varies by as many 27 years in different DMV neighborhoods.  Further, in schools, learning is typically divorced from participation in power.  School tests, papers, and projects tend to be strictly academic exercises, intended foremost to move youth along toward the next grade level and graduation, rather than to connect and engage students as citizens in wider learning communities where youth can participate with adults in government policy-making.

For these reasons, Learning Life, a Washington DC-based educational nonprofit, is organizing a Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking (hereafter, “the Summit” or “YSYP”) for up to 120 diverse DC area youth in 8th-12th grade to be able to come together across lines of difference, learn, deliberate, and propose policies that could help give young people in the region more voice in government policymaking that affects them.

In formal school settings, research indicates that access to dedicated civics courses and participatory programs significantly enhances civic knowledge and political efficacy (Galston 2001, Ballard et al. 2016, Blevins et al 2016, Campbell 2019, Owen & Groth 2020).  Students who attend civic workshops outside school, where they have the opportunity to meet with legislators and attend legislative hearings, experience significant gains in civic knowledge and political efficacy (Padilla et al 2020).  Students’ commitment to civic participation also deepens when they are engaged in civics learning, afterschool activities, and live in civically responsive neighborhoods (Kahne & Sporte 2008, Blevins et al 2016).  Student involvement in civic clubs and extracurricular activities also nurtures future civic behavior as an adult, including voting and community engagement (Youniss et al 1997, Kirlin 2002, Kahne & Sporte 2008).  Overall, students demonstrate the most growth when their civic learning is student-driven, action-oriented and integrates skill-building and reflection (Morgan & Streb 2001, Kirlin 2002, Kahne & Sports 2008, Ballard et al 2016, Blevins et al 2016).

Longer-term, Learning Life thus envisions an annual summit bringing young people together from the DC region, across lines of class, race, religion and other divides, to connect, learn and propose policies on issues that affect them, with preparation via school classes and/or extracurriculars, plus opportunities for youth to help implement and evaluate these policies with the support of foundations, schools, nonprofits, businesses and governments.  Such regular, community-supported summits should help (a) bridge social divides between DC area youth, and between youth and governments in the DC region, (b) engage more diverse young people in the DMV as connected, capable and caring citizens, (c) increase their influence on policymaking, thus improving government accountability to youth, (d) cultivate greater public trust in government, and (e) strengthen regional employment pipelines for the benefit of youth and employers.

Summit Schedule

The core of the Summit occurs on Saturday, September 27, 1-3pm via Zoom, then Saturday, October 4, 1:00-3:30pm, in person as part of the second DMV Democracy Festival, taking place at 1-6pm, though there are steps prior to and after September 27 and October 4.  See all Summit steps under “Requirements & Benefits” below.

The September 27, 1-3pm Speakers & Discussion via Zoom will combine speaker presentations with discussion to provide participating youth with some policymaking knowledge in preparation for the October 4 Summit in person.  The diverse speakers will come from the DC area and internationally to give participants wider perspective on youth involvement in policymaking.

The October 4 Summit will proceed as follows:

1:00-1:15pm: Orienting remarks, then move into small groups of up to seven youth, each with at least one adult policy mentor.

1:15-2:00: In small groups, participants each develop one school, city, county or state policy proposal that would increase youth voice in policymaking that affects them, then together discuss and agree upon one policy proposal to present to the wider group.

2:00-2:40: Participants reconvene as one large group to briefly present their proposals.

2:40-3:00: Each participant votes on all the policies proposed, assigning a priority score of 1, 2 or 3 (1 is lowest priority, 3 is highest) to each proposal.

3:00-3:30: Concluding remarks, then participants complete post-survey, get any community service forms signed, and receive raffle tickets (see benefits section below for more about the tickets).

DemFest 2025 culminates on October 4 with a comedy show for democracy at 3:45-4:45pm, then a party at 5-6pm with a variety of tasty sweets, music, community info tables, and raffle prizes.  Summit participants get free access to these culminating DemFest events, and are encouraged to attend.  Click here for the full DemFest schedule.

Following the Summit, Learning Life will produce a YSYP report, including the youth’s policy recommendations, and the impact of the Summit.  The report will be shared with all participants, elected officials and government staff, plus interested civic organizations in the DC region.  YSYP youth will have the opportunity to attend and in some cases share their experience of the Summit at any public meetings at which YSYP will be reported.

YSYP is a project of Learning Life’s DMV Democracy Learning Community (DLC), an association of DC area individuals and organizations working to make democracy more fun and inclusive by developing social events, products, services and spaces that entertain and nurture learning, networking, collaboration and wider, deeper citizen participation.

Benefits & Requirements

Benefits: For 8th-12th graders, benefits of participating in the Summit include:

  1. Three DemFest raffle tickets for a variety of prizes, including $100 cash.  Raffle winners will be announced and prizes awarded at DemFest’s concluding celebration at 5-6pm on Saturday, October 4.  You must be in attendance at the celebration to be eligible for the raffle prizes.
  2. Community service credit.  Bring your service sheet with you to have signed at the end of the Summit at 3:30pm on October 4.
  3. Resume-building experience in policymaking.
  4. Connections to caring DC area students, mentors, and policymaking professionals.
  5. Contribute to giving voice to DC area youth in policymaking.     

Requirements: To take part in the Summit, you must:

  1. Be in 8th to 12th grade, or of that age.
  2. Attend a school located within one hour’s drive from Washington, DC.
  3. Complete the RSVP by midnight, Wednesday, September 24.  Some to all Summit students and their policy mentors will be profiled on their own digital poster to introduce the public to the YSYP 2025 participants.
  4. Pay the Summit fee by midnight, Wednesday, September 24:
    $100/student for families with total gross household income over $100,00 in 2024.
    $50/student for families with total gross household income $50,001-$100,00 in 2024.
    $25/student for families with total gross household income under $50,00 in 2024.
    $1,000 per school for up to ten 8th-12th graders.  Schools with restricted budgets can get a 50% or 100% fee waiver pending funding from YSYP sponsors.  The “Pay the Summit fee” link above is for DemFest fundraising overall, so make sure to note “Payment of DemFest Youth Summit fee” when you contribute.  Learning Life trusts its Youth Summit families to pay honestly according to their household income, so no need to provide evidence of income.
  5. Students complete a short consent or assent form, depending on their age, to participate in the YSYP impact evaluation.  Parents of students 17 and under complete a consent form.  The assent/consent forms are voluntary, but strongly encouraged to help us evaluate the impact of the Summit.  The assent/consent form will be emailed to those who RSVP.
  6. Complete the YSYP pre-survey online.  Those who complete the RSVP will receive the pre-survey.  The pre-survey is voluntary, but strongly encouraged to help us evaluate the impact of the Summit.
  7. Optional, but strongly encouraged: Those who complete the RSVP will be invited to join the DMV Democracy Learning Community (DLC) Linkedin Group.  Set up a free Linkedin profile including at least a pic of you + your school name, if you don’t already have a profile, then join the DLC Linkedin Group (details on how to join to come via email, Linkedin and/or Whatsapp).  Through the Group, you can connect with fellow Summit participants (students, policy mentors and sponsors), learn more about the Summit, and develop a sense of the community before September 27 and October 4.  Note: Linkedin does not allow youth younger than 16 to have their own Linkedin account, but if you are under 16 you can take part in the community through a parent or legal guardian who can join the Linkedin community via their own adult Linkedin profile.  All parents and guardians of YSYP participants are encouraged to join the Linkedin Group.
  8. Participate in YSYP Part 1: Speakers & Discussion on Youth Policymaking on Saturday, September 27, 1-3pm via Zoom.  Participants will receive a couple of short documents before September 27 to enrich their understanding of policymaking.  Those who complete Steps 3, 4 and 5 above will receive the September 27 Zoom link via email.
  9. Participate in YSYP Part 2: Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking in person on Saturday, October 4, 1:00-3:30pm at the 2025 DMV Democracy Festival.  Participants must complete the YSYP post-survey at the Summit’s end to get community service hours credit + raffle tickets for DemFest prizes including $100 cash.  The post-survey is voluntary, but strongly encouraged to help us evaluate the impact of the Summit.
  10. Optional: Motivated YSYP participants will have the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills by sharing their YSYP experience and the policy proposals that got the most votes at public meetings following the Summit.

Adults who wish to observe the Summit, or volunteer as policy mentors during the Summit should fill out the same YSYP RSVP linked above to get email updates.

Contact us at email@learninglife.info with any questions.

References

Ballard, Parissa J., Alison K. Cohen, and Joshua Littenberg-Tobias. 2016. “Action Civics for Promoting Civic Development: Main Effects of Program Participation and Differences by Project Characteristics.” American Journal of Community Psychology 58: 377–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12103

Blevins, Brooke, Karon LeCompte, and Sunny Wells. 2016. “Innovations in Civic Education: Developing Civic Agency Through Action Civics.” Theory & Research in Social Education 44 (3): 344–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2016.1203853

Campbell, David E. 2019. “What Social Scientists Have Learned About Civic Education: A Review of the Literature.” Peabody Journal of Education 94 (1): 32–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2019.1553601

Galston, William. 2001. “Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education.” Annual Review of Political Science 9: 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV.POLISCI.4.1.217

Kahne, Joseph E., and Susan E. Sporte. 2008. “Developing Citizens: The Impact of Civic Learning Opportunities on Students’ Commitment to Civic Participation.” American Educational Research Journal 45 (3): 738–766. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831208316951

Kirlin, Mary. 2002. “Civic Skill Building: The Missing Component in Service Programs?” PS: Political Science & Politics 35 (3): 571–575. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096502000872

Morgan, William, and Matthew Streb. 2001. “Building Citizenship: How Student Voice in Service-Learning Develops Civic Values.” Social Science Quarterly 82: 154–169.  https://doi.org/10.1111/0038-4941.00014

Owen, Diana, and Alissa Irion-Groth. 2020. “Civic Education for Youth Empowerment: The Impact of We the People and Project Citizen.” Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice 20 (3). https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v20i3.2977 

Padilla, Yesenia Alvarez, Mary E. Hylton, and Jennifer Lau Sims. 2020. “Promoting Civic Knowledge and Political Efficacy Among Low-Income Youth Through Applied Political Participation.” Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (2020): n. pag.

Woolf, Steven, et al.  2018.  “Uneven Opportunities: How Conditions for Wellness Vary across the Metropolitan Washington Region.”  VCU Center on Society and Health.

Youniss, James, Jeffrey McLellan, and Miranda Yates. 1997. “What We Know About Engendering Civic Identity.” American Behavioral Scientist 40: 619–630. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764297040005008