Civics doesn't start with policy. It starts with people. This summer, Civic Lens is bringing 15 young people to the Society for Ethical Culture to explore identity, community, culture, and civics — and find their voice before the world asks them to use it.
It costs $1,000 to fully sponsor one participant. Our goal is to sponsor all 15. Every dollar goes directly to making this week possible.
Civic Lens Week is a week-long experience where participants engage in conversations, storytelling, and reflective exercises centered on identity, lived experience, and perspective.
The focus is not on arriving at fixed answers, but on developing a clearer sense of how personal experiences shape the way someone sees and moves through the world.
Too often, young people are asked to speak, lead, and engage — without ever being given the space to understand who they are first. Without space to reflect. Without space free from judgment.
We're building that space. Civic Lens Week is where identity meets civic life — a week for young people to explore who they are before the world tells them who to be.
Civic Lens Week centers on that starting point — the individual, their story, and how that story connects to the world around them.
Every level of support makes a real difference for the young people who will be in that room. Choose what feels right for you.
Covers the materials a young person will use throughout the week — the tangible tools that support every conversation, reflection, and exercise.
Give $250Covers meals and materials, ensuring each participant can fully engage — nourished, equipped, and present from the first day to the last.
Give $750Covers full participation in Civic Lens Week at the Society for Ethical Culture — everything it takes for one young person to show up, engage, and leave changed.
Sponsor at $1,000Sponsors 5 young people and helps bring this experience fully to life — a transformational investment in the next generation of civic thinkers.
Give $5,000This is the first Civic Lens Week, and it is being built with care. The people who choose to support it now are part of shaping what this becomes — not only for the young people in this year's cohort, but for the way this work continues to grow.
Your support contributes to a model that centers self-awareness as a starting point for how people engage with their communities and the world around them.
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