A FREE, National Civic Engagement Activity for the 2008 Elections!

Add Your Students’ Voices to the 2008 Elections with Open Caucus Open Caucus (OC) is a series of class discussions and activities that teachers incorporate into their social studies, history and government high school curriculums for 10th-12th Grades. Using OC, students create visions for their communities, the nation, and the world that they want achieved. These visions are then combined with the visions of other groups throughout the country and become a public platform during the Elections. Additionally, to get their vision into the world, OC produces posters and stickers with a message that your class creates. All materials for conducting the activity and national presentation of their messages are provided FREE. OC takes 3 class periods over the course of 1 semester.

Real World Opportunities for Your Students to Engage the Candidates and the Public! In addition to providing an active learning supplement in-class, OC allows students to engage in the political process beyond the classroom. This December, we publicly displayed our Fall OC participants’ visions at a Forum with the 2008 Presidential Candidates in Des Moines, IA. Plus, 18 OC students attended the Forum and created a video documentary of the event, supervised by our Executive Director and award-winning documentary filmmaker, Linda Goode Bryant! The film is now being edited for a 2008 release, check www.activecitizenproject.com for updates!

This coming Spring semester, students can take part in: • New Political Art & Media – students create non-partisan cartoons, jokes, songs, short videos or other media that share their visions for politics in America. OC features new student work weekly alongside professional artists on www.activecitizenproject.com. • ACP Challenge Web Debates - Students and community members nationwide take part in 4 online web debates where they debate and brainstorm new ways for making change. • National Forum with 2008 Candidates (Aug. 9, 2008) – Students participate in a live national forum hosted in Jackson, MS where the public, and local & national candidates brainstorm ways to achieve their visions for the future. Your Classroom Expands the Role and Relevance of Youth in the Political Process The platform your students create shapes a local and national platform that emerges from Open Caucus and community activities that are being held in cities nationwide. In November 2008, your students and others who are 15 years and older can vote in the People’s Election, a national referendum to make their local and national platforms mandates for public leaders to address.

Who is Open Caucus? Open Caucus has been conducted in classrooms in 28 cities since 2004. OC is an activity of the Active Citizen Project (ACP), a national, non-partisan community and school project to expand the role and relevance of communities – especially those that are underrepresented – in the political process. OC and ACP are not-for-profit and supported by national foundations.

For More Information contact: Steve Dooley steve@activecitizenproject.com or toll-free at 877-352-4927.