| 1. Who are the target populations we prioritize as an organization? | High school-aged leaders who seek to become civic innovators in order to build a brighter future for their communities, countries, and the world.
They know that humanity needs to radically change its approach to addressing its greatest challenges, and that they must rise together to build a better future for humanity.
They are in interested in one or more of the following “civic innovation sectors” that CU specializes in: democracy, climate, and web3.
Our community today represents all 50 U.S. States, as well as 47 countries around the globe spanning North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. 74% of our community identifies as women, 70% identify as BIPOC, and 22% are part of an active U.S. Military family. It is from this diverse community that the magic of CU emerges. Everything at Civics Unplugged is built with Gen Zers across the world, ensuring that everything we create relates to our target audience and stays relevant in a fast-paced environment. And given that our programming is digital-first, almost any student, no matter their location, can join this community and train to become a civic superhero. | | --- | --- | | 2. What geographic boundaries will you prioritize? | Anywhere where video conferencing and other tools needed to participate in CU programming is not blocked, with a primary focus on the US.
We are actively working to develop partnerships with tech companies who can donate laptops / phones / internet to those who need it. | | 3. What is our "secret sauce"? | Our secret sauce (differentiator) is our commitment and ability to build the lasting ecosystem of empowerment needed to develop young civic innovators. Building this ecosystem is extremely challenging, because it requires a team that is intergenerational, experienced in civic innovation, and well-connected to civic innovators globally that want to provide the training, funding, and other opportunities that young people need to grow into civic innovators over many years.
To elaborate:
We have a team and network of advisors that are well equipped to credibly and effectively teach civic innovation to Gen Z (our team includes many Gen Zers as well as a wealth of experience and expertise across tech, law, education, startups, and more) and are able to convince donors and partners that the development of civic innovators is a worthy investment.
We have a vast network of civic innovators (e.g. Digital Minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang, Andrew Yang, Jacqueline Novogratz) and civically innovative organizations (e.g. RethinkX, National Geographic, Google, PocketWatch) who have https://www.civicsunplugged.org/strategies our community of Gen-Zers to co-build civic innovation projects, and who are committed to working with CU to provide our Gen Zers with opportunities well after they graduate from the CU Fellowship.
CU embodies a culture of civic innovation. Not only do we create programs and curriculum that focus on civic innovation, but we model the processes we teach. Our team, organization structure, and ways of operating are focused on constantly experimenting, learning, and iterating to improve the way we develop young civic innovators. Some of our latest innovations include projects like https://dreamdao.xyz/ and working to gamify our core Fellowship program. | | 4. Why are we focused on democracy, web3, and climate? | 1) Democracy: In short, shortcomings in democracy affect how much progress we can make on big issues that require government action. Click https://cucrew.notion.site/77e90b69cc1b40bdb04515832f7062b0 to dive deeper into our thinking on this.
Web3: Web3 represents a culture, community, and set of emerging technologies that have the power to change the way humanity does everything, including run communities and cities. Click http://announcement.dreamdao.xyz/ to dive deeper into our thinking on this.
Climate: Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity’s future. Government action is necessary, and we must innovate our way out of disaster as well. To ensure Gen Z is equipped to move the needle on climate change, we are developing specialized programming for this massive issue. |