Our work
Civic Participation and Economic Leadership
Chambers, agendas, microphones, boardrooms and balance sheets. The places where public and economic decisions are made.
Civic participation begins long before a ballot is available.
70% to 29%
Among young people who interacted with their community often, 70 percent believed they could make a difference. Among those who never did, 29 percent.
Source: CIRCLE, Tufts University
Twenty three municipalities have handed a student the chair. Thirty fellowship sessions put a cohort inside County Hall, a seaport, a newsroom and a foundation boardroom.
Civic Action Podcast
Since 2023
Students ask the questions.
A student hosted interview series that brings the people who run Miami-Dade institutions into conversation with the young people those decisions land on.
Students research a guest, build the questions, run the interview, and publish the episode. Guests have included the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a member of the School Board, the chief executive of The Children's Trust and the president of Miami Dade College.
What students leave with. Interview skill, subject knowledge, and a public record with their name on it.
The question
What do young people ask when nobody screens the questions first?
The experience
Sustained preparation, then a recorded conversation with a decision maker.
The work
Research briefs, question sets and published episodes.
The result
Episodes have reached more than 2,063 students.
2,063
students reached through podcast episodes.
Access to decision makers is usually reserved for adults with titles. This program hands it to students with questions.
Youth Governance Day
Since 2024
For one day, Miami-Dade changes hands.
Students step into the roles of mayors, council members, managers and constitutional officers across participating municipalities. The program runs the day after the school year ends and was officially proclaimed in Miami-Dade County in 2024.
Students are briefed by the staff who do the job, sit at the dais, take the seat with their name on it, review real municipal issues, meet department directors and, in many cities, are formally recognized on the record.
What students leave with. A working map of local government, and the memory of having been treated as someone whose presence in that chair made sense.
The question
What changes when a young person sits in the chair rather than in the audience?
The experience
City halls, council chambers, manager offices and constitutional offices across the county.
The work
Briefings absorbed, questions asked on the record and public recognition received.
The result
Twenty three municipalities have hosted the program to date, nineteen of them this year.
23
Miami-Dade municipalities have hosted Youth Governance Day. Nineteen took part this year.
Government becomes less abstract when you know the name of the person behind the desk, understand what they actually do, and have sat in the room yourself.
Florida Student School Board Member Initiative
Since 2024
No decision about students without students.
A student led advocacy campaign to secure student representation on school boards across Florida. Only five of the state's sixty seven counties currently seat a student advisor.
Students research district governance, build the case, travel to connect with student leaders and community allies in other counties, and take the proposal to elected officials and the state legislature.
What students leave with. Direct experience of how a policy idea moves from a grievance to a proposal to a legislative ask.
The question
Why do most Florida students have no seat at the table where their education is decided?
The experience
School campuses, district offices, community coalitions and the state legislature.
The work
Legislative research, coalition outreach and public advocacy for a statewide mandate.
The result
The initiative moved from grassroots outreach to advocacy for a bill mandating student representation statewide.
5 of 67
Florida counties currently seat a student advisor on the school board.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has seated a student advisor since the 1960s. The third largest district in the nation shows that it can be done.
Civic Excellence Gala
Each May
The night the work gets counted.
An annual evening where student leadership is recognized in front of the elected officials, educators, funders and families who make the year possible. Students run the program, write the remarks and give the awards.
Students produce the event, deliver the addresses, honor peers whose projects made a measurable difference and present the year's results directly to the people who funded them.
What students leave with. The experience of standing in front of a room of adults with authority and being listened to.
The question
Who decides which young people get recognized, and in front of whom?
The experience
A full ballroom of students, families, elected officials, educators and funders.
The work
Student written remarks, student run production and student selected honorees.
The result
More than four hundred guests attend, and the year's programming is funded in the room.
400+
guests at the Civic Excellence Gala.
Recognition is not decoration. For a young person, being named in public by an institution changes what feels possible next.
Strive305 Economic Fellowship
Since 2025
Do not study the system from the outside. Enter it.
An intensive cohort experience built with Strive305 and the Miami-Dade County Office of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, connecting students to government, business, media, entrepreneurship and applied problem solving.
Fellows tour a working seaport and a county elections operation, research economic questions inside public libraries, learn reporting in a working newsroom, sit through a board of commissioners simulation in county chambers, build financial models, and pitch developed proposals to judges and partners.
What students leave with. An economic vocabulary, a network of adults who know their name, and a proposal they defended in public.
The question
How does Miami's economy actually work, and who gets to shape it?
The experience
County Hall commission chambers, PortMiami, a Brickell boardroom, a working newsroom, a commercial print house, the MDC Idea Center, the Knight Foundation and three public library branches.
The work
Research, interviews, policy development, budgeting and formal pitches.
The result
Fellows drafted a Legacy Business Framework to protect long standing local businesses and presented it to the Board of County Commissioners.
30
scheduled experiences in a single cohort. Twenty three in person and seven virtual.
Confidence does not appear by accident. Students build it by entering unfamiliar rooms, producing work and being expected to perform.
Speak Out September
Your city. Your voice. Right now.
A countywide campaign encouraging young people to attend public meetings in their own municipality and participate through informed public comment.
Students find the agenda, read the item, prepare remarks that fit the time limit, sign up at the podium and speak on the record.
What students leave with. A constitutional right converted into a practiced skill, and a name in the public minutes.
The question
What good is a right that almost nobody knows they have?
The experience
Municipal meetings across Miami-Dade County, on the record and in public.
The work
Agenda research, prepared remarks and delivered public comment.
The result
Young people who have spoken once at a podium tend to know they can do it again.
12%
of United States adults surveyed in 2025 could name the First Amendment right to petition the government.
Source: Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2025
So the campaign practices it.