COMMISSION ON HIGHER EUCATION

SAN JOSE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Malilipot, Albay

MODULES FOR NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM 1

LEADER
SHIP
CHALLE MODULE 4.3
NGE
Key Concept in Youth Civic Engagement
FOR and Leadership Civic Engagement

THE
YOUTH
OVERVIEW

TCivic
O DEngagement,
A Y It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through
both political and nonpolitical processes.” Volunteerism is one defining characteristic of civic
engagement in that most if not all such activities are discretionary.

ACTIVATION

In Ten minutes (15mins), write your ideas about the difference between Youth Civic
Engagement and Leadership Civic Engagement.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the module, you are expected to:

1. Discuss the difference between youth civic engagement and

leadership civic engagement.

Learning Experiences and Self-Assessment Activities (SAA)

The term civic engagement (CE) does not have a standard definition; definitions of civic
engagement vary over discipline, organization, country context, and person to person. In
addition, the concepts associated with it are related to the interests of the definer, and the
disciplines he/she is grounded in (Adler and Goggin 2005; Meinzen-Dick, Di Gregorio and
McCarthy, 2004); civic engagement exists in a space that brings together diverse social science
disciplines such as sociology, political science and economics. Concepts related to CE include
social change, community involvement, political involvement and community service (Adler and
Goggin 2005). While the concepts vary across organizations, the authors of this report found it
useful to highlight two main aspects of the definition: political activities and community service
activities. Civic Engagement can include volunteering in a community service project, social
learning, being involved in an organization working to address a social issue, voting, and joining
with others to raise concerns (Mercy Corps 2012; Adler and Goggin 2005).

A general definition that might encompass different aspects of the concept is: “Civic
engagement describes how an active citizen participates in the life of a community in order to
improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future” (Adler and Goggin,
2005, 238). For example, civic engagement could be a single individual advocating for youth-
friendly reproductive services at their local health clinic, or a group of youth advocating to the
Board of Education in their region for comprehensive sexual education, or youth councils who
interact with adults in government, or participate in trainings to act as peer mentors on the topic.
This wide range of ways to engage, and the degree to which it is possible in various contexts,

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shows that civic engagement can encompass both traditional political engagement, such as
voting or participating in politics, and social or community methods, such as volunteering. Other
definitions of civic engagement, such as the ones quoted below from Adler and Goggin (2005,
238-9), were more specific to the program being implemented by the definer:

 Civic engagement as community service: an “individual’s duty to embrace the

responsibilities of citizenship with the obligation to actively participate, alone or in
concert with others, in volunteer service activities that strengthen the local
community” (Diller, 21 qtd in Adler and Goggin 2005).

 Civic engagement as political involvement: “civic engagement differs from an

Individual ethic of service in that it directs individual efforts toward collective action
in solving problems through our political process” (Diller, 7 qtd in Adler and Goggin
2005).

 Civic engagement as collective action: “the means by which an individual, through

collective action, influences the larger civil society” (Van Benshoten qtd in Adler and
Goggin 2005, 239).

All definitions of civic engagement involve some form of active participation going beyond
civic awareness, or the understanding of civic duty (Winkler n.d.). Some of the main concepts of
civic engagement are defined below:

 Civic competencies: the understanding of what it means to be a citizen; awareness

(Winkler n.d.).

 Citizenship: involves a universal “compact of rights and obligations that bind citizens
and states” shaped by the local circumstances and contexts. In development contexts,
states are often unable to deliver on their end of the bargain and provide certain
services. Mediating organizations can engage young people in roles and activities that
allow them to become active citizens (Kassimir 2010).

Service programs:
programs that involve citizens, usually youth, in order to support national development
(Israel 2011).

 Social capital: the shared knowledge, understandings, norms, rules, and expectations
that groups of individuals bring to recurrent activities. These norms are important for
people’s livelihoods, development programs and economic growth (Meinzen-Dick and
McCarthy 2004).

 Participation: the involvement of different members of society. Participation can be

either direct or through intermediate institutions or representatives (Mery Corps n.d.).
Additionally, participation may range from exercising full voting rights and decision-
making capabilities to playing a consultative/advisory role (Camino and Zeldin 2002).

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  Collective action: joint action by a group of people towards achieving a common goal
(MeinzenDick, and McCarthy 2004).

Civic engagement or civic participation 

is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Citizens acting
alone or together to protect public values or make a change or difference in the community are
common types of civic engagement. Civic engagement includes communities working together
in both political and non-political actions. The goal of civic engagement is to address public
concerns and promote the quality of the community.
Civic engagement "is a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public
concern" and is absolutely "instrumental to democracy" (Checkoway & Aldana,
2012).Underrepresentation of groups in the government causes issues faced by groups such
as minority, low-income, and younger groups to be overlooked or ignored. In turn, issues for
higher voting groups are addressed more frequently causing more bills to be passed to fix these
problems (Griffin & Newman, 2008). 
Civic engagement helps the "emergence of diversity democracy", which is defined as a way to
"influence agency decisions" from ways besides voting (Checkoway & Aldana, 2013). An
informed voter is beneficial for a democracy and the only way for this to occur is through
education. One potential solution is to create a mandatory training course for younger voters to
learn of the opportunities with civic engagement. Additionally historically lower voter turnout
groups may lack basic resources to understand how to register to vote or even how to get to
voting locations.

1. Youth Engagement
is the result when young people are involved in responsible, challenging actions to create
positive social change. This means involving youth in planning and in making decisions that
affect themselves and others.

Youth engagement happens when young people have sustained connections anywhere in
their life. Youth engagement can happen throughout the lives of children and youth, including
within themselves, in the immediate world around them, throughout society in general, and
across the entirety of the world. The sustained connections they make can be emotional,
psychological, or cognitive and can happen personally and socially.

How Does Youth Engagement Happen?

"Engaged youth" are generally labeled that way because they are experiencing sustained
connections in ways that adults approve or acknowledge. These young people are typically
identified in places like schools, nonprofit youth programs, and athletic programs. Their
engagement is generally awarded by adults with incentives, including good grades, certifications
of participation, and varsity letters. "Disengaged youth" are generally young people who aren't
engaged in ways adults have determined are in the best interests of those young people. They can
be found in a variety of places that adults don't approve of or recognize the value. These include
at home playing video games; at after school jobs; at a friend’s house after dropping out of

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school; or by joining gangs, hanging out with friends on the streets, or playing pickup basketball
at night and on the weekends.

Youth Engagement in Programs

Effective youth programming involves a supportive environment; an orientation toward
positive outcomes; and program activities that involve multiple learning styles and are hands-on,
experiential, relevant, and challenging. There are several core strategies to enhance young
people's meaningful engagement in programming. Whether it is a sports, after-school, or
prevention program, young people can make authentic contributions by being involved in
program planning, implementation, and evaluation/reflection.

Planning

Invite young people to provide ideas for program activities and events, offer suggestions for
recruitment and outreach, or map out new topic areas.

Interactive Planning Activity: Backwards Planning

Young people define the desired outcome of the project and start planning all the necessary steps
by working backwards from the goal or outcome. They can use sticky notes or other colored
paper, or they can use a sticky wall and paper. As they generate action steps, they can discuss the
order and rearrange steps if necessary.

Implementing

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Give young people concrete roles and responsibilities during programming, such as group leader,
facilitator or co-facilitator of a program activity, manager of logistics (prepare material, set up,
refreshments, etc.), or project leader and organizer.

Program responsibilities and roles that a young person could carry out include these examples:

 Community/neighborhood events
 Mentoring of younger youth
 Peer education
 Manager of a youth-run café or teen center
 Leader/captain of a sports team

Evaluating/Reflecting

Engage young people in reflecting on the program or program activities through focus groups,
surveys, interviews, or speak-outs. To ensure that input from young people is solicited regularly,
institutionalize the practice by forming youth advisory groups or developing youth as evaluators.

Interactive Evaluation or Reflection Activity: Interviews

Young people can interview each other about a group experience or a completed project. It is
best to start this activity by brainstorming the interview questions as a group. Put young people
into teams and have them interview each other. After a few minutes they can report back to the
larger group about their findings. To make it more interesting, they can use cell phones or flip
cameras to record the interview.

2. Leadership Engagement
Achieving employee engagement is a commitment that starts with leadership.
Every leader in the organization has an impact—good or bad—on the teams they lead,
and this influences individual engagement.

Literacy Training Service 1

Roberto G. De Chavez, DBA, SPBE, FRIEdr
[Link]

Self-Assessment Activities Answer Sheet

TASK 1

Know-Want-Learn (15 minutes)

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Ask yourself on the things you already Know, what you Want to learn and What you Learned in
this topic. Write your answers on the space provided.

KNOW WANT

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LEARN

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 TASK 2 Supporting Research:

Gather Research Information on a selected article focusing on the problem for Youth
Engagement and Leadership Engagement to community.

Explain Briefly.

Submit this not later than October 29, 2020 thru my email natividadramon79@[Link]

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT LEADERSHIP ENGAGEMENT

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Self and Module Check

How was your experience? Tell me about it. (draw your response below.
MODULE EVALUATION
SELF EVALUATION
Module is learner-friendly.
I learned a lot from this module Comprehensive and easy to
understand

Module is clear but lacks few details

I learned just right

Module has vague points that

I still need guidance on certain require revision.
topics

Module does not cater my learning

I don’t understand anything needs.
discussed

Answer Answer

References:

CWTS/LTS 1
Roberto G. De Chavez, DBA, SPBE, FRIEdr
[Link]
wikipidia

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