Civic Opportunities Initiative Network (COIN)
Thinking about democracy from the bottom up
| Download a PDF describing COIN | About COINThe Civic Opportunity Initiative Network (COIN) is a program of The New World Foundation that seeks to increase community capacity, creating opportunities for academic and leadership training for young leaders in order to help link them to grassroots community organizing in a sustainable way. COIN is based on the premise that service and education are important elements of active citizenship. COIN puts community based organizations (CBO's) at the center of this equation by empowering them to make deep connections with youth and families and use their knowledge of their own community to help prepare youth for college. Through academic and financial support for students in exchange for their service to community-based organizations, COIN seeks to build a model that sustains community organizing as a form of youth service, and incorporates civic engagement and democratic participation as an integral part of their education curriculum. COIN seeks to strengthen community leadership, establish inter-generational and inter-ethnic collaboration, and stabilize community-based organizations as strong anchors for development in low-income communities. Ultimately, the mission is to create a new pipeline of well-educated local leaders to energize and sustain CBO's at the grassroots level. COIN's goals include:
- empowering young leaders to strengthen ties to their communities
- making democratic participation an integral part of education
- stabilizing CBO's in low-income communities
- creating opportunities for academic and leadership training for young leaders
- linking youth to grassroots community organizing in a sustainable way
COIN Policy Objectives Community Based Organizations (CBO's) and Universities By positioning CBOs as anchor organizations for high school and national service we establish a new point of entry in local communities. In some cases, (particularly agencies such as FEMA, EPA and Census) funding can be deployed through CBOs, to train and mobilize young people as agents for disaster preparedness and recovery, environmental protection and census counting. In this way, communities are activated, local leadership and capacity enhanced, and the CBO is strengthened in its position as a point of community leverage on political processes. The university partnership (which now involves 12 private colleges and universities and 36 public universities) amplifies the university's outreach within communities and brings university students' expertise to CBOs. An added benefit is that local politicians who tend to gobble up the community's fiscal resources to bring in new leaders will now have the help of universities as their community partners. School Reform By turning the community service component of U.S. high school curricula into a preparatory program for national service, we connect the local community to the community-at-large and improve academic performance in the process. Whereas the current model of service is a disconnected experience, we engage young people in ways that have been documented to work in schools. Here is how we do it: The guaranteed promise of a next step on the education ladder greatly enhances current performance. Case studies confirm that children in the bottom two quintiles regain a belief in the value of academic effort and apply themselves successfully when they know they will have the opportunity to go to college. Through community service, students will be involved in real work, valued by their communities and learn real skills. When youngsters feel useful and respected their academic performance improves. Further, skill mastery in one domain is a strong basis for new learning. Students working in CBOs engaged in valuable work in their own communities (as school children, college students and graduates) helps to bring the community directly into their lives too. The varied and rich resources of a community (it takes a village redux) can counteract the education and income deficits of parents and improve the academic performance of their children. Students in the program each have mentor trainers so as to encourage sustained, close personal contact. The data is quite clear: a strong relationship with a teacher (or another committed adult) can be the gateway to academic achievement. Students will be part of a national leadership and relational skills building program, which will develop social emotional learning (SEL) during the COIN experience that we expect will result in healthier school relations and the application and further development of SEL skills in community life. 06-09 COIN Civic Opportunities Initiative Network. COIN Pilot ProgramLaunched in 2008, the COIN Pilot Program seeks to demonstrate that service can be a form of active citizenship and that education must be a commitment of citizenship. As the COIN model program develops, the contours of COIN and its potential impact have greatly expanded. The six organizations participating in the pilot round of COIN are:
- Community Coalition, Los Angeles, CA
- Florida Immigrant Coalition/Students Working for Equal Rights, Florida
- Southwest Organizing Project, Albuquerque, NM
- Tenants and Workers United, Alexandria, VA
- Make the Road NY, New York, NY Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, CA
Program Overview: In the spring of 2009, each organization selected a group of 8-10 students completing their sophomore year of high school. These students will come together for an orientation retreat to build teamwork and introduce the students to the basic concepts, which will be developed through ongoing curriculum for the program, including leadership skills, academic preparedness and civic education. After the retreat, each student will return to their home community to complete a summer-long internship at their host organization. Each organization will have ongoing contact with the students, providing leadership opportunities, mentoring and academic support throughout the year. Each organization has agreed to mentor students through high school as well as through the college application process. COIN participants will be able to attend the college of their choice, with gap funding provided to cover tuition and fees. Many of the organizations involved in COIN are leveraging the program to raise additional scholarship funds for youth actively engaged with their respective organizations. Once COIN students are in college, they will continue to work with their home organization (or in other activities or campaigns approved by that organization) during the summer, and continue to have contact with their mentors and the national infrastructure support on an ongoing basis. The final phase of COIN will be 1-2 years of paid service after college graduation at the student's original CBO host or at another organization in the COIN network. National Infrastructure Support TeamConcurrently, we have developed a national infrastructure support team of experts to support COIN organizations and students. This team is developing a program that covers 3 areas:
- academic preparedness
- social emotional learning
- leadership and civic education
A framework is being built to support students and local organizations that includes regular retreats, curriculum development, the creation of a mentor program, technical assistance/trouble-shooting at the local level, and strengthening connections to colleges and universities. The team will be developing resources for student selection, mentoring/supervision, casework, standardized test preparation, political education and leadership training. How COIN helps inform national service initiatives Community Capacity Building COIN emphasizes local participation in core community activities and includes community organizations in the policy and management of key government programs. Census counting is one of those activities. Involvement in census counting for 5-6 years preceding the actual census raises the level of community awareness of its importance and the level of community readiness to participate in both political and electoral arenas. Involvement with federal agencies in this way will create local and national, cross-sectoral relationships for CBOs, thereby bringing them into mainstream advocacy and planning and oversight roles. We have developed this program over the last 15 months so that it is now fully engaged in six states, working with public and private universities, and supported by New World Foundation, and in partnership with NoVo Foundation. We are engaged with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in a research project to identify other programs that, like COIN, aim to benefit low income communities. We are also using this opportunity to bring the respective foundations' missions to the development of expanded National Service initiatives. We believe that in addition to the Corporation for National and Community Service, FEMA, HUD, EPA, Public Health, and Census resources can, if made available to CBOs, expand the scope of service capacity to make local communities resilient in the face of economic and national disasters and ready for the recovery opportunities that follow. In addition we see the capacity of local democracy strengthened when young people develop a wide range of civic participatory skills to become active and involved community members. Students will be part of national leadership and relational skills building program because developing social emotional learning during the COIN experience we expect will result in healthier school relations and the application and further development of SEL skills in community life. | Download a PDF describing COIN |
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