Youth Revive provides character and civic education in South Dallas/Fair Park area high schools to help close the civic empowerment gap for youth in low-income communities. Youth Revive facilitators lead students through project-based Ignite Me Action Civics curriculum. This happens during the traditional school day directly in the classroom. Our curriculum uses a six-phase framework process: analyze community assets and issues, identify key issues through root-cause analysis, research for evidence, propose solutions, develop an action plan, and present their projects at the program’s capstone event, Community Action Project (C.A.P.) Day.
We have served over 600 students since the start of our program and in that time, our community action student groups have presented 84 projects with proposed solutions to issues ranging from police brutality to inadequate emergency services. Collaborating with community organizations is key to our program. We work to connect students with agencies that have a missional cause around their identified issue. We invite local officials and community leaders to C.A.P. Day so they can interact with students on their community action projects. We also have a Know Your Assets Week, where we host 15 to 25 local organizations and pair them with a student group interested in their mission space for discussion and learning. These connections provide helpful insight, means of relevant research, assistance in creating an effective solution for the identified issue, and in some cases, internship opportunities. We partner with the City of Dallas in the fall and spring to host Operation Beautification, a community service event for the students in our program.
During the 2019-2020 school year, 271 students participated through our five early college high school partners. 79% of students demonstrated increased levels of agreement that they know the four categories of a Community Asset Map. 60% of students demonstrated increased levels of agreement that they plan to work with a group to solve issues in their community. 75% of students demonstrated increased levels of agreement that they can identify assets in their community who would be willing to help find a solution to an issue. Over 70 students presented at the fall 2019 C.A.P. Day, where we had 50 judges interact with students on their projects and 30 volunteers help execute a success event.
