CHICAGO (WLS) — A vibrant collective of 500 young individuals from various corners of the United States has been inaugurated as the first wave of Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness.

Among these pioneers are four dedicated teams hailing from Illinois, representing the communities of Skokie, Vernon Hills, Chicago, and Iroquois County.

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These groups are at the forefront of change, each crafting and spearheading a community project aimed at tackling local challenges, proving the transformative power of youth-driven initiatives.

This ambitious program is orchestrated by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, bolstered by a generous grant exceeding $2 million from the Carnegie Corporation.

Audra Watson, who plays a pivotal role as the head of Youth Civic Programs at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, is at the helm of this groundbreaking effort.

“We want them to learn the skills of collaborative problem-solving, constructive dialogue, of navigating information, and to be able to use those skills in their communities to solve issues that are pressing within those communities,” Watson said.

Those who take part have to be between the ages of 14 and 24, and they have to have identified a verifiable issue within their community.

“We expect them to go from idea to real implementation of the project,” said Watson.

Each team has five members. Watson says it was “incredibly hard” to select the participants. There were 300 teams that applied.

“One, that speaks to how much young people want to do this work in their communities,” said Watson.

Watson says they have young people that are at the beginning of their “civic journey,” along with people who are a little further along. The institute plans to select another 100 teams next year.

Two of this year’s participants are Patricia Mathu, a PhD student at Purdue University, and Dylan Christopher Ford, a junior at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park.

Mathu lives and works with a collective called Zumwalt Acres in Iroquois County. Her team is focused on hunger relief and food supply.

“With funding from Carnegie, we are having a series of community dinners in Iroquois County, so I live about an hour-and-a-half south of Chicago in a rural area. And we’ve been having soup and bread, salad, and using it as an opportunity to build relationships with the people that live around us,” Mathu said.

Mathu says they are trying to learn more about the food system that is “currently the dominant way that people are fed in America has a lot of injustices.”

Ford is working on improving voter participation among young people.

“To be honest, the thing is, we don’t really talk about voting that much, you know?” Ford said.

But Ford says he and his classmates should talk more about the topic since they’ll soon be eligible to vote.

“What really inspired me to tackle this issue was, I was sitting in my American studies class last year, in November, and at that time, we just stopped everything to talk about the election that was going on. And we noticed in our discussions that not a lot of young people weren’t voting. And I thought, maybe we should do something about that,” Ford said.

Ford says he’s been given permission to set up tables for pre-registration drives. Illinois law does allow 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote. Ford thinks that many young people don’t vote because it seems really “intimidating and it just seems inaccessible.” But he’s reminds others, their voice matters.

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