Big Citizen HUB

Big Citizen HUB connects youth from across Los Angeles, empowering them to be contributing members of society by cultivating leadership skills and creating an environment to tackle pressing civic challenges.

Los Angeles, like many cities, is divided– racially, socially, economically. Our nation is in a state of civil unrest, as demonstrated by protests and arguments surrounding critical issues such as police relations and LGBTQ+ rights. We need more opportunities for people to connect to better understand each other and the complexities of these issues. Our most precious resource – youth – have the potential to come together to confront these issues but are disconnected and not being activated.

Why youth? The National Institutes of Health found that between the ages of 12 and 25, people are literally wired for excitement, novelty, risk, and peer authority. These traits make young people uniquely suited to solve problems, if given the opportunity. Excitement and novelty leads to learning new things and creating new solutions. Risk leads to trying things adults might not. Peer authority leads to changing behaviors.

Big Citizen HUB harnesses these youth assets and positive peer networks through dialogue, community immersion, diversity, and teamwork, while activating youth to address the critical issues dividing our cities – ultimately contributing to a more just, open, and connected society.

Over the course of 22 Saturdays between January and July, we focus on increasing Big Citizens’ civic knowledge and personal agency. We:

• Place youth on diverse teams, utilizing a near-peer mentor structure
• Address concerns of cultural competency by exposing youth to different groups, perspectives, cultures, and ideas that they may not otherwise have access to
• Give Big Citizens the space to learn and practice civic leadership skills, such as public speaking, mobilization, information literacy, social media usage, conflict resolution, and team leadership
• Provide the resources to explore, serve, and reflect on social justice issues
• Provide a place to implement local solutions to local problems, so that Big Citizens can immediately see how their actions can have a positive impact on the community, setting the stage for future action
• Complete youth-led service projects (middle school) and six-week externships (high school)
• Utilize public transit to learn from and volunteer with agencies across the city, witnessing issues first-hand

Partnering with over 50 community-based organizations, Big Citizens will address the following social issues in 2017: Animal Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Food Justice, Homelessness, Immigration, and LGBTQ+ Equality.

By engaging young leaders with each other, with LA’s critical issues, and with local agencies working toward solutions, Big Citizen HUB is building a pipeline of social change makers.