Join Politique? in engaging 2.400 underprivileged youth aged 16-18yrs in developing civic skills such as leadership, public speaking and a sense of agency in their communities. We will transform train 120 teachers and school advisors inside public schools to run our Debate Clubs with our support. "I could jump over the school wall and go home. But every Thursday I don't do it so I can stay in the debate club." - says a student engaged in our Debate clubs in 2019.
Civic engagement is, above all, a habit that needs to start at a young age. 78.4% of the non-mandatory voting-age youth (aged 16 to 17) decided not to register for the 2018 elections. This is why we chose schools to work with. There are over 7 million students enrolled in high school. From every 100 students that start the first year of high school, 23 of them don't make it to the next year.
Civic engagement can lead to better school performance and behavior. It can also help with other challenges that affect the education system, such as school evasion and absenteeism, by making the students feel more included in their communities. We will insert civic engagement in public schools by training high school teachers and advisors in our Debate Clubs methodology, to be offered as part of the curriculum inside 60 public schools.
This project will train 120 teachers and school advisors in our Debate Clubs methodology, which will be offered in 60 schools reaching over 2.400 students in Pernambuco, Brazil. We expect to scale our reach to 150 schools and 80.000 students in 2021 in partnership with State-level Education offices in Brazil with our Civic Engagement Program. The Debate Clubs are a central piece of the Program. We are changing youths lives and building a stronger democracy, one student at a time!
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
