Future250: Cultivating the Next Generation of Democracy

Generation Citizen opens with a call to reimagine democracy by recognizing youth voice and civic imagination as essential civic infrastructure and makes the case for why expanding youth access to civic opportunities is essential to democracy’s next 250 years. The essays that follow feature personal reflections from young people on the experiences that shaped their civic identities—from advocating for change in their schools to engaging local leaders and organizing in their communities.

When did you first feel that your dreams about the future mattered?

Young people are already naming the courageous steps we can collectively take today to ensure a better future and their voices must be included in the blueprint for what we build tomorrow.

For some, it happens while sketching characters for a graphic novel, reading science fiction late into the night, or creating art that imagines a different world. For others, it takes root during a classroom discussion, out in the neighborhood, at the dinner table, or through volunteering. For me, that sense of civic possibility was formed early.

As a young person, I often felt the weight of history was too immense for my individual voice to cut through, although I grew up in a household where social change was part of everyday conversation. That feeling shifted when I began participating in voter registration efforts and local volunteering. During that time, I was also inspired by an educator who pushed me to develop my civic identity and look at what a different world could look like. This kind of civic formation should not be the exception; it must be the reality for all young people—especially as our nation continues to celebrate its 250th year since the Declaration of Independence.

Philanthropy, nonprofits, educators, and civic institutions can play a unique role in helping to build and sustain a thriving and inclusive democracy through intentional investments in youth voice, civic imagination, and community-level visioning. Young people are already naming the courageous steps we can collectively take today to ensure a better future and their voices must be included in the blueprint for what we build tomorrow.

We have the responsibility to protect and cultivate three essential pillars for the rising generation: the freedom to learn, the freedom to dream, and the freedom to build.

To amplify some of the impactful work led by young people as they develop their civic identities, the series, Generation Citizen, features discussions with high school students and their efforts underway to address pressing challenges impacting their communities. Across these conversations, you’ll hear how one high school student’s campaign for halal school meals became her first lesson in systemic change, how a college student’s interest in government became a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and public service, how a recent college graduate is harnessing the power of writing to advocate for education reform, and why one young adult believes democracy is strongest when every person has the opportunity to contribute in their own way.

These powerful stories represent just a few of the many efforts led by young people across the United States. As I reflect on their work—and on the necessary conditions to sustain our democracy—I am reminded we have the responsibility to protect and cultivate three essential pillars for the rising generation: the freedom to learn, the freedom to dream, and the freedom to build.

Protecting the freedom to learn requires us to confront a defining trust crisis, which has worsened by a growing wave of state laws and local directives that restrict classroom discussions, limit reading materials, and penalize teachers. These restrictions have heightened anxiety for educators and make it harder to have honest conversations about social issues. According to America’s Promise Alliance’s first annual State of Young People Report, these social divisions are felt deeply among our youngest citizens, and they are disillusioned with the current political systems. A mere 12 percent of young people trust government leaders, and only 16 percent believe democracy is working for them.

While institutional trust has eroded, a closer look at the data reveals the precise entry point for civic renewal: 65 percent of young people say they trust their peers. This lateral trust signals democratic revitalization is possible, and taking root in classrooms, collective problem-solving, and peer-to-peer collaboration. To build a thriving democracy and meaningfully engage our youngest citizens, we cannot restrict their education to rote compliance, or the memorization of how our government was formed over the past 250 years. Instead, we must equip students with the tools to analyze our history honestly, evaluate the credibility of the media they consume, and understand the systems that shape their daily lives.

When we secure the space to learn, we unlock the freedom to dream. The scholar Dr. Ruha Benjamin invites us to “remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” That is the essence of civic imagination: the capacity to envision alternatives to current social, political, and economic conditions, and to see oneself as an active agent capable of shifting them.

In these moments of collective stress, the capacity for collective visioning of a better tomorrow is essential to sparking hope. Communities grow stronger when young people have the freedom to dream and vision together. Meaningful change becomes possible when young people are invited to not only learn about existing frameworks, but to also help co-create what democracy should look like in the 21st century. With this understanding, Generation Citizen’s Future250 initiative is looking ahead by elevating youth voice and civic imagination. Through Future250, we embed strategic foresight exercises into our events, inviting young people to systematically map community assets and to articulate their highest visions for a multiracial democracy—making way for the freedom to build.

The freedom to dream is inextricable from the freedom to build. Moving young people from spectator roles to active participants is made possible through democratic practice which remains most accessible and meaningful at the community level. When we prioritize experiential civics, democracy stops being a rigid set of rules to memorize and instead becomes a living project that students build with their own hands. As such, Generation Citizen has developed a community-based civic learning model that brings the mechanics of democracy to life for young people. Through hands-on, project-based learning, middle and high school students are given the opportunity to tackle real challenges, from litter in public parks to school food accessibility, youth homelessness, and substance abuse.

Through Future250, young people can address some of the most pressing societal challenges that impact their communities and practice civil discourse by collaborating across lines of difference, researching localized root causes, and interviewing stakeholders with divergent perspectives. Developing these skills helps transition young people from learning about advocacy to practicing it. In this model, student participants can put their skills to practice by presenting actionable policy solutions to local officials and decision-makers.

By investing in our youth’s freedom to learn, dream, and build, we ensure that our future is guided by active citizens who remain committed to the common good. With optimism for the future, I invite you to read this series with an open mind and take some time to imagine the civic landscape we can build together.