Programs
Giving you the ideas, tools, connections, and spirit to catalyze your community.
Citizen University inspires and equips people to practice citizenship in ways that feel relational, relevant, and sustainable.
Power + Character Educator Training
This training provides our Power + Character curriculum as a resource for adults who want to help young people wrestle with, try on, and celebrate their transition out of childhood and towards an identity of powerful, responsible citizenship.
Who this is for: Educators (both classroom teachers and others who work with young people) seeking more robust and integrated ways to talk about civic participation, civic responsibility, and civic love.
Why we offer it: The need for dynamic civic education and identity formation has never been greater. And yet today’s political landscape makes designing civic experiences for young people feel charged, insufficient, even impossible. Citizenship is not just about what papers or passports we hold. And it’s not just about knowing how a bill becomes a law. It’s about our everyday choices and mindsets, about how we see ourselves as contributing members of society that take action to solve the challenges around us.
What the experience is like: We know that teaching these ideas takes time and practice. We offer an in-depth training experience to supports networks of educators in learning to offer this content and imagine new ways to bring it to their learning environment. Our training is for groups of 30-35 adults, and we support them in a six-month cohort of learning, experimentation, and activity, anchored around an in-person training experience.
NOW RECRUITING: educator cohorts for fall 2025 and spring/summer 2026
Learn more →
It’s time for a new way to do civics. It’s time to do citizenship.
Learn about Power + Character →
CU Community
Our community is home to a growing network of civic catalysts committed to deepening citizenship among the people and places they call home.
Who this is for: Alumni who have taken part in one of Citizen University training programs.
Why we offer it: Being in community is where we each belong. Made up of people working at the ground level — librarians, teachers, coaches, nonprofit administrators, organizers, artists, and more — this is an alumni network that shows up: for each other, for our neighborhoods and communities, and for the long, necessary work of civic renewal. From coast to coast, we’re each bringing meaningful activities and experiences to life, drawing on signature CU ideas, methods, and spirit, and building a stronger culture of citizenship, locally and together, across distance.
What the experience is like: As alumni, we gather on purpose: sometimes to meet the moment, sometimes to explore enduring questions and how to pursue common priorities. We share stories and wisdom gleaned from our efforts at home, circulate resources, reflect on foundational civic principles and fresh ideas, and support each other with honesty and care — through the wins and the challenges. We believe in doing the work, not just talking about it. And we know that our impact is stronger when we’re connected to one another as thought partners and collaborators.
Civic Collaboratories
Citizen University has always been a gathering place. Since our founding, we have searched for and experimented with innovative ways to come together across identity, ideology, and sector. One of our most consistent offerings to the field are our National Civic Collaboratory and Youth Collaboratory programs. These two programs operate side by side to bring rich, intergenerational, mutual aid practices to life within a dedicated member-network of civic innovators from across the country.
NATIONAL CIVIC COLLABORATORY
Who this is for: Civic innovators, practitioners, and leaders. (Membership in the National Civic Collaboratory is offered by invitation only — we are eager to connect with folks who believe their work would benefit from participation. Share your information with us and we will follow up during our nomination season next winter.)
Why we offer it: We think of the National Civic Collaboratory as a mutual-aid club, convening catalytic innovators across sectors and silos of civic work – from veterans to civic education to tech to media and arts; and across left and right – to build relationships and circulate power. Members build a habit of committing to one another from which everyone benefits: a microcosm of what’s possible when America works.
What the experience is like: The National Civic Collaboratory gathers several times a year around the country to build bonds of trust and affection, circulate mutual aid, and build power across the civic landscape. These gatherings spark a belief that new ways of relating and circulating power are possible, and members weave that belief throughout the fabric of our nation.
Learn about the National Civic Collaboratory →
YOUTH COLLABORATORY
Who this is for: Catalytic high school sophomores and juniors who want to learn about and practice circulating civic power. Youth Collaboratory applications are currently closed. Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of our next application cycle.
Why we offer it: It’s easy to feel powerless — especially as a young person. In the Youth Collaboratory, high school students dive deep into how civic power works and how to harness it in order to solve pressing challenges they notice in their community.
What the experience is like: Each cohort attends several meetings of the National Civic Collaboratory and participates as full members: making commitments, receiving support, and deepening bonds of trust and affection. These students also plan and launch Power Projects in their communities. They receive coaching from CU staff members and mentoring from members of our national network.
Learn about the Youth Collaboratory →
