New Voters Project Civic Leadership Training Program 2022

What’s the New Voters Project?

For nearly 50 years, the Student PIRGs have run non-partisan campaigns that have contributed significantly to increasing youth voter participation in communities around the country. Since 1984, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project has helped register more than 2 million young people to vote, and made more than 3 million personalized GOTV contacts, while training thousands of students in the citizenship, leadership, and campaigning skills necessary to run mobilization and turnout campaigns to encourage their peers to participate in our democracy.

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2022 – Year of the Youth Vote

Despite record-breaking progress during the 2020 and 2018 elections, young people continue to be underrepresented in our democracy. Only 50 percent of eligible 18-29 year-olds voted, compared to 65 percent of the voting eligible population. We must do all we can to change this dynamic and ensure young people are participating in the political process. 

While the national youth voter turnout rate is lower, students on college campuses, on average, turnout at the same rate as the general population!

College campuses are key to organize in order to shift the overall narrative. Research shows that when you register to vote and then remind young people to vote, they are significantly more likely to vote. Looking ahead to 2022, we know that youth voter turnout will not increase on its own. Young people continue to be underrepresented at the polls. That’s why we need to organize and contact young people to turn out in massive numbers.

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Civic Leadership Training Programs

Building on a successful training program that has provided skills and training for thousands of students over the last 50 years, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project Civic Leadership Training Programs will provide students the training they need to effectively organize their peers in the 2022 midterm election and create long lasting cultures of civic engagement in their campus communities.

Students who complete the program will receive ongoing support and resources from the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project team as they organize their non-partisan voter registration campaigns throughout the year.

Civic Leadership Certificate 

Students who complete the Civic Leadership Certificate Program will be equipped with the basic skills needed to run an effective student voter registration and mobilization drive on their campus. This training program focuses on strategies and tactics that have been proven to increase student civic participation in elections.

Skills you will learn:

• Building a team of student volunteers and leaders
• How to use peer-to-peer tactics to mobilize students (phonebanking, class announcements, and in person events)
• Non-partisanship and voter registration training 
• Organizing strategic in person and online actions and events
• Developing diverse vote coalitions
  
  

Expectations:
This 4 week program will run from 6/1 to 6/29, with an opportunity to continue on to the degree program or a full time intern. There will be 4 hours of class each week and an additional 4-6 hours of independent work to be completed and reported by Friday afternoons. 

Weekly schedule:
Class block #1: Monday 4:30 – 6:30pm ET (mandatory)
Class block #2: Wednesday 4:30 – 6:30pm ET (mandatory)
Team workblock Thursday 3 – 5pm ET (optional)
Reporting deadline Friday 5pm local time (mandatory)

Schedule of Classes: 

Weekly Content	Day	Date	Overview Description	Hours
New Voters Project Orientation	Wednesday	6/1	This is a basic orientation to the New Voters Project Civic Leadership Program. Learn about the history, organizing model, and fall plans for the Student PIRGs New Voters Project, one of the country’s oldest and largest youth voter mobilization efforts	2
Creating your campaign plan – In person organizing	Monday	6/6	The first step to helping your campus get vote ready is to make a plan! In this section, we will review best practices to strategically engage your campus and focus on developing voter engagement campus events.	2
Creating your campaign plan – Online organizing	Wednesday	6/8	A good campus action plan ingrates in person tactics with online tactics. This section will review voter engagement tools like StudentVote.org and best practices to reach students online	2
Building Vote Coalitions	Monday	6/13	Building a large, diverse coalition of groups to work collectively is key to reaching every student on campus. We will review the how tos on reaching out to groups and spend time outreaching to student groups, faculty, election officials, and more	2
Recruiting Volunteers	Wednesday	6/15	We can’t hit our voter engagement goals on our own, so in this section we will train you how to build a team of volunteers to register voters, run events, and implement your voter engagement plan	2
Peer to peer tactics – Phonebanking	Monday	6/20	Students are more likely to vote if they hear about it from another student. This section will train you how to run effective phone and text banks with your volunteers	2
Peer to peer tactics – In person	Wednesday	6/22	To reach every student, we need to meet them where they are. In this section we will share best practices on in person peer-to-peer tactics like class raps, tabling, and dorm storming.	2
Running a  non-partisan  voter mobilization  drive	Monday	6/27	Knowing the rules and laws around voting in your state is a vital part of running an effective non-partisan voter engagement drive on your campus. We will train you on how to be compliant with these rules and review the tracking systems you should use over the course of your campaign	2
Final Individual meetings	Tues – Thurs	6/28 – 6/30	We will wrap up the Civic Leadership Training with an individual meeting with a member of the NVP leadership team to make sure you are all set to run your campaign going forward. There is also an opportunity to continue your training by joining our Degree Program or Internship Program	0.5

 

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Civic Leadership Degree

Students who complete the Civic Leadership Degree Program will receive advanced skills training to build long lasting student organizations to mobilize their campuses for the short term and long term. Students who apply to this training should have completed the Certificate Program or have relevant organizing experience. This program is focused on developing student leaders and building an organization on campus.

Skills you will learn:

• Working with your vote coalition to develop a Campus Action Plan
• Training student vote coordinators and captains
• Institutionalizing the vote – making voting a part of everyday campus life
• Uplifting your campaign by working with the media
• Grant writing and fundraising 
  
  

Expectations:
This 4 week program will run from 7/6 to 7/20, with an opportunity to continue on to the degree program or a full time intern. There will be 4 hours of class each week and an additional 4-6 hours of independent work to be completed and reported by Friday afternoons. Participants will also be trained to help organize and run the Civic Leadership Boot Camp for staff and students around the country. 

Weekly schedule:
Timing for class blocks and weekly class schedule will be announced in mid-June.

Schedule of Classes: 

Weekly Content	Day	Date	Overview Description	Hours
Training Student Vote Captains	Wednesday	7/6	Learn how to train and develop other student leaders on your campaign or organization to reach more students to vote	2
Institutionalizing Voting on your Campus	Monday	7/11	This section will review ways campuses have integrated voting into every day campus life – like voter registration on move-in day and Election Day as a campus holiday – and strategies to implement them on your own campus.	2
Advanced Coalition Building	Wednesday	7/13	Having a strong vote coalition is important to creating long lasting cultures of voting on your campus. This section will help you develop ways to keep coalition members engaged and dedicated to long term youth voter engagement. We will also review how to plan, prep, and run effective campaign meetings	2
Working with the Media	Monday	7/18	Working with media outlets – like tv, newspaper, and podcasts – will help amplify your efforts and reach more students. Learn how to work with reporters, submit opinion pieces, and stay on message	2
Fundraising and Grant writing	Wednesday	7/20	Learn how to raise money to support your campaign and organization. We will review the basics to writing grants and spend time applying for funds to support your campaigns this fall	2
NVP Civic Leadership Boot Camp	Mon & Tues	7/25 & 7/26	This two day virtual training is an accelerated version of the Civic Leadership Certificate Program designed to provide the basic skills needed to run an effective student voter registration and mobilization drive on your campus. Students in the degree program will help organize and run this Boot Camp Training for fellow students	14

 

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Civic Leadership Boot Camp

This two day virtual training is an accelerated version of the Civic Leadership Certificate Program designed to provide the basic skills needed to run an effective student voter registration and mobilization drive on your campus. This intensive training focuses on strategies and tactics that have been proven to increase student civic participation in elections and will be delivered through skills overviews from expert organizers and small group workshops to provide individualized attention to trainees. The training will be Monday (7/25) and Tuesday (7/26) and will run from 12pm – 6pm ET.

More details to follow in June.

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Meet Your Trainers: