Beryl and Neil Kreisel recently welcomed a large group of guests to their Montecito home for a lesson on civic engagement and the mission of Civic Influencers.
A national nonprofit organization based in Lewes, Delaware, Civic Influencers works with college and university administrators, faculty, staff and student leaders to engage youth in federal, state and local elections.
It was apparent from the buzz among those in attendance that the audience was concerned and motivated about safeguarding our democracy.
Local Civic Influencers board member Leslie Bhutani, a social justice activist and documentary producer, introduced CEO Maxim Thorne, who explained the mission. He was accompanied by two staff members who described the difficulties young people encounter in navigating voting roadblocks on college campuses.
The organization aims to change that by empowering students through personalized coaching for voter registration and turnout, voting law challenges, and candidate and issues education.
Voter turnout among young people is low, historically, and Civic Influencers is directing its efforts toward historically marginalized groups like black, indigenous and youth of color.
“Civic Influencers believe they need to make sure our democracy thrives by engaging the 4 million youth who turned 18 in 2021,” Thorne said.
“In 2020, Civic Influencers partnered with over 600 institutions with a combined enrollment of 6.4 million youth and supported 352 student election Engagement Fellows.”
Included among that support, he said, were nonpartisan educational materials, including candidate guides, classroom conversation guides, state voting guides and video guides for voting by mail.
“We are so excited to watch this democracy project grow and to extend our success in 2020 when the voting rate on targeted campuses with Civic Influencers increased from 52% in 2016 to 66% in 2020,” Thorne said.
The organization wants to hire 600 campus student leaders and has embarked on a $1.2 million goal to make it happen. Although the campaign has $800,000 to go, funding for state coordinators to manage and train the students already is in place.
Accompanying my parents as a young child in Chicago and taking my own children with me to vote in California has made a lasting impression on me, but I’m not alone. According to Civic Influencers analytics, “individuals who vote when they’re young tend to continue voting.”
“For democracy to survive, we need to vote despite all the obstacles being legislated,” Neil Kreisel told Noozhawk. “I support Civic Influencers and their hundreds of ‘youth influencers’ engaging young people in the political process on often ignored campuses around the country.”
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at news@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.