In January, our Youth Civic Leadership team launched Civic Buddies to bring different age groups together to build literacy and strong citizenship. We’re happy to report it’s been a success.
Here’s how it works: With funding from Dollar General, Civic Nebraska supplied sets of books on civics and citizenship to dozens of students in our Community Learning Centers at Sherman and Lothrop Magnet elementary schools in Omaha. Each Wednesday afternoon, students in our Trailblazers Afterschool Academy at Omaha’s Lewis & Clark Middle School lead a series of live, virtual read-alongs with the elementary students, followed by discussions and activities. Best of all, elementary students get to keep their copies of each book, to enjoy again and again.
Civic Buddies has become a favorite activity among our younger students. So far, they have enjoyed reading along with What Does it Mean to Be an American?, What Does it Mean to be Green?, We Can Vote, and Character Counts: Be a Good Citizen.
Watch Lewis & Clark eighth-grader Chloe and students from Lothrop and Sherman delve into that last title below:
“We the People” means our youngest Americans, too. Learn more about Civic Nebraska’s work to build the next generation of civic leaders.
