Has anyone had time to breathe yet? What an incredibly exciting and busy time for all Leagues throughout NY State and through our entire
country. Voter services are everywhere and all of you involved deserve accolades to the “nth.” It is also well known that youth has been involved with many events such as voter registration drives, candidate forums, Get- Out-The-Vote plans and other voter service activities, be it in schools or communities. Hooray for all of you!
Special thanks go to Mary Jenkins, (LWVNYC) for her continued involvement with Democracy Ready NY Coalition, a unique opportunity offered by Teachers College, Columbia University. Mary represents the city League and Jennifer Wilson, LWVNYS Legislative Director, represents the state League on this coalition.
The Democracy Ready NY coalition’s goal is to ensure that every student is prepared for civic participation.
The coalition aims to:
- strengthen state education policy, practice, and resources with the goal of supporting the right of all students under the NYS Constitution to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need in order to engage, today and in the future, as effective civic participants;
- raise awareness about that right; and
- mobilize the expertise of students, parents, educators, researchers, advocates, attorneys, youth- development specialists, and philanthropy to work collectively toward these
(Betty Ann King, LWVNYS Youth Programs)