Springfield suffers from an image issue. Many kids express being unhappy about Springfield and don’t like the way their city is. Many of the kids aren’t well educated in the field of civics, either, and there’s a general feeling of defeat. About 27% of the population within the city lives at or below the poverty line. This is an opportunity to increase community positivity as well as give disadvantaged youth the opportunity to improve their community in a way they choose.

We are treating this project like a summer job. The teens are getting paid and will present their final project to a panel of professionals from the city, library and community changemakers. This project allows teens to steer their learning to issues that resonate most with them. The teens will be paid in return for their work, with the aim that it will promote a sense of community duty. It gives teens the opportunity to build important connections in a high-caliber first job, ultimately building up their futures.

We aim to build up the teen’s self-esteem, civic awareness and feeling of importance. A weak spot in civics knowledge and awareness has been identified in local youth and this initiative hopes to bridge that gap and educate youth in civics. We also aim to get teens involved in their community so that they can inspire other youth to get involved. We want to continue this initiative after its summer conclusion so that the teens can bring other youth in and continue serving the community on a larger scale.