WHAT IS THE RAISE YOUR VOICE CAMPAIGN?

Many people are concerned about what has been termed a "crisis in our democracy" as more and more people of all ages are becoming spectators, rather than active citizens building a vibrant democracy. This concern is often most targeted at young people, who are among the least politically engaged by traditional standards of political participation (only 28% of 18-24 year olds voted in the 2000 election). We hear over and over that young people are "disengaged," "apathetic", and "apolitical."

Yet, students are volunteering at an all-time high (up to 82% in one study) and we are finding initial evidence that this service work is connected to political engagement, even if it's not called that.

"I don't do traditional politics, but my service work is political," explained one college student at a recent workshop on student civic engagement. This is a common refrain by college students as they describe the work they are doing in communities and asked about the connection of that work to politics. When the student elaborated on her work, the student explained she was involved in organizing students against sweatshops, lobbying at the legislature to replace the Native American mascot at her school, and volunteering to teach English as a Second Language to new immigrants. Yet, she was adamantly opposed to conventional politics and did not want her work to be categorized as such.

This story is suggestive of an emerging trend that highlights the need to better understand the way this generation of college students is involved in contributing to democracy. In 2001, Campus Compact convened a group of students from across the country at the Wingspread Conference Center for a discussion of student civic engagement from the perspective of students themselves. These 33 students represented diverse institutions as well as varied social, political, economic and intellectual interests. 

Out of this conversation and the student written report, The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement (Campus Compact, 2002), came an emerging concept of "service politics." Service politics attempts to connect community service and political engagement in a way that "service" is not seen as an "alternative to politics" but rather as an "alternative politics." From this notion, it could be seen that the students felt an intrinsic connection between their local work in schools, neighborhoods, and campuses to larger political and policy issues. Community service work informed, strengthened, and deepened their ability to make political decisions.

The Wingspread Summit illustrated the power of highlighting student voice and creating space for dialogues on service, politics and the role that higher education plays in democratic life. Student voice is a critical, often neglected, aspect of the discussions on the civic purposes of higher education. 

VISION
Raise Your Voice is a substantial effort to listen to student voices and support student civic engagement to address public issues crucial to our democracy.

The Raise Your Voice Campaign has three overarching objectives:

• Increase college student involvement in public life and connect these actions with a larger national student movement around civic engagement

• Document student civic engagement activities and issues that are important to college students

• Mobilize higher education in a way that gives more voice to students and makes civic engagement central to student learning

Highlights of Activities:

• Raise Your Voice – A Week of Action, Presidents’ Week every February. In 2004 this became A Month of Action.
• Resource Guides on Engaging Students and Facilitating Dialogues for Presidents, Community Service Directors, Faculty, and Students
• Build Coalition of National Student Organizations as Partners
• Creation of a Student Civic Engagement Web-Based Clearinghouse
• Student Leadership Teams in 14 states
• Student Dialogues on Service, Politics, Civic Engagement and Issues that are important to college students
• Campus-Community “Mapping” of How Campuses Help Support and Hinder Student Voice and Civic Engagement
• Student Public Issues Statements based on Dialogues and Mapping on Issues that are important to students

This initiative is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a foundation that supports nonprofit activities in the areas of culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy and religion. Based in Philadelphia, the Trusts make strategic investments that encourage and support citizen participation in addressing critical issues and effecting social change.