Expanding our partnership with MyVote Project with support from Mellon Foundation

Since 2022, Incite has partnered with MyVote Project to develop new, youth-led voter engagement models.

MyVote Project is a national, nonpartisan organization promoting civic engagement and voter participation among young people and voters of all ages. Powered by a network of more than 250 student volunteers, MyVote Project combines old-school community outreach with social media, virtual meetings, and a website that makes local policies and policymakers searchable by postal code. In partnership with Incite, MyVote Project is experimenting with new models of local voter engagement.

Over the last year, Incite and MyVote Project have piloted two Community Conversations in New York City, where youth volunteers engaged local leaders, artists, activists, advocates, faith groups, organizations, and the general public in discussions about local issues. Findings from these conversations will help shape the content on MyVote Project's innovative website.

Working at a local level, these models of community outreach are based on the theory of change that young people can shape their futures by constructing the issues considered societally relevant. At the core of this partnership is an idea central to many of Incite's projects—listening to each other's stories and understanding one another's worldviews are critical to human and community development and, so, to a democratic society.

We are thrilled to announce that Mellon Foundation has granted $50,000 to expand our partnership with MyVote Project. This contribution will enable us to continue to refine, develop, and share models that we hope to implement across the country.

Our activities will build on our June Community Conversations event focused on the lasting impacts of Covid-19 on life in New York. In small groups, local high school students led participants through discussions about the impact of Covid-19 on education, performing arts, healthcare, and small business. With food, music, and appearances from local performers, this event sought to move critical conversations beyond boardrooms and classrooms and create an open and welcoming place to discuss local politics.

Through Mellon support, we're also working to partner with other colleges, develop a paid internship program for students, and assess findings from past and future Community Conversations. Incite will contribute experience in survey and interview research to better understand participants' experiences and drive continuous improvement.

“We are very excited to continue developing the Community Conversations model in partnership with Incite at Columbia University,” said MVP co-founder Gita Stulberg. "We see this work as a critical piece to making MyVote Project a place for young people to learn how to construct a polity in which they and their respective communities can see themselves.”