Youth Civics

Studio C70 interviews candidates for office

Each election, the Committee of Seventy partners with PA Youth Vote to interview candidates from both parties running for state and local races up and down the ballot. We'll work with you to help reach out to candidates and coordinate the virtual meeting space. Your students can supply the questions. Fill out this form if your class would like to participate.

See previous interviews on the C70 Facebook page.

Democracy for Kids

Children are ready to begin their journey towards engaged citizenship from the moment they start school. The Committee of Seventy is partnering with experienced educators to share unique learning tools for elementary and middle school students that build basic civic knowledge, illustrate countless ways that young people can become citizens engaged in their community, and provide practice in democratic deliberation.

Contact us if you're interested in bringing these to your students.

Sign up to be a poll worker

Attention, PA high school juniors and seniors! Did you know that if you are 17 years old, you can get paid to serve as a poll worker at your local polling place on Election Day?

In Philadelphia, the City Commissioners' Office has an online application for their "Involved at 17" student poll worker and bilingual interpreter program. The program is an authentic civic learning experience that fulfills an important need on Election Day, AND students will get paid $250 or more. 

If you live outside of Philadelphia and want to serve, our partners at PA Youth Vote have a valuable resource that shows you the process for serving as a poll worker in each county.

The Committee of Seventy has partnered with the Stanford/MIT Healthy Elections Project, PA Youth Vote and the League of Women Voters of PA to offer informational content in the lead up to each election. Sign up and download the slide decks from each of the presentations and our Resources for Poll Workers toolkit. View them here. 

Election Ambassadors

This program engages high schoolers on Election Day to serve voters at their neighborhood polling place, answering questions for voters. Learn more.

Seventy welcomes high school students to spend a few hours in the classroom learning about Pennsylvania elections and a few hours at their local polling site speaking to voters and seeing democracy in action. Hundreds of students have participated in the Election Ambassador Program since its 2015 launch, learning about the upcoming election and why voting matters, assisting voters with questions about voting procedures and conducting an exit survey about various voting-related topics.

Draw the Lines Redistricting Resources

Every ten years, Pennsylvania is required to redraw its election maps for Congress and the state legislature. The Committee of Seventy ran a project from 2018-2022 called Draw the Lines to help make sure those maps were drawn fairly, with public input. We developed learning materials for high school students to draw their own political maps, using free, web-based software. Those materials are still available classrooms across Pennsylvania to use to learn about redistricting.

Teachers: Access learning resources for your class.

See Draw the Lines in action in the classroom.