Civic Education in Schools and Community
The League of Women Voters vision is to “Empower Voters. Defend Democracy.”
Vision and Mission
The ission of the LWVPGH Civic Education in Schools and Community team is to foster more active and informed citizens by providing free nonpartisan, reliable resources and educational opportunities that advance the understanding of our representative government, elections, and voting. civic.education@lwvpgh.org
Throughout our outreach, we demonstrate and reinforce our nonpartisan policy: The League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh is a nonprofit 501 (C)(3) organization and is nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties.
We continue to provide meaningful, nonpartisan civic education and voter registration opportunities for middle and high school students across the western Pennsylvania region by strengthening and expanding two collaborations and programs that have a proven track record of success; Biz Town Civic Education column wrap; Happy 18th Birthday classroom posters.
History
The Civic Education team has been together and active in a free school and community outreach program for five years. Collaboration with and feedback from high school administration, teachers, and students have resulted in a program that is continuously renewed.
About the League of Women Voters Greater Pittsburgh: www.lwvpgh.org
The LWVPGH is one of more than 700 chapters of the national League of Women Voters and is the largest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With more than 250 members, our Chapter is active in all aspects of League mission. We are committed to building relationships throughout our region by developing and sharing important nonpartisan, vetted and valued information and programs. Uniquely, we have a new program for the registration of incarcerated and newly returning citizens that is gaining attention across the state. The LWVPGH website is an extraordinary source of information and resources on voting, elections, and civic education. These resources are available free of charge to everyone who visits the site. Our members are asked to speak at state and national programs on the innovative work we are doing to support nonpartisan civic action. Tens of thousands volunteer hours are given to the LWVPGH each year. (Link to graphic here.)
Activities
Biz Town Column Wrap
Beginning in 2022, the LWVPGH has worked collaboratively with the Pittsburgh Chapter of Junior Achievement (JA) to provide hands-on civic education opportunities to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students visiting JA’s Biz Town educational facility in Bridgeville, PA. League Volunteers support the “Mayor of Biz Town” office (City Hall) explaining voting and political responsibilities of local elected office.
In 2025, JA offered the LWVPGH an additional opportunity to promote the League and civic education with the visual display of a full interior building structural column “wrapped” on four sides with civic education information. The information is targeted for the middle school student age group but is relevant to all ages that experience Biz Town including teachers, parents, volunteers, and other Biz Town corporate partners. Included in Biz Town visitors are many state and local government officials who get a first hand look at the LWV’s nonpartisan messaging and our student-focused activity. (Photos of Pillar #1 and Pillar #3 below.)
For students in this age group, Biz Town is an exciting experience. For many, it is their first look at the community around them and what it takes to be involved. It introduces important economic and civic responsibility concepts. The 2034-2025 school year saw 8,076 Biz Town students visit with 9000 students expected for 2025-2026. The students are from western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio.
The wrap debuted in September 2025 and will run for three years. It is very possible that the column wraps with civic education content could be replicated in other JA BizTown facilities across the country. The cost to the LWVPGH is $5000 per year. Goldin Foundation funding would help offset the 2026 costs.
Happy 18th Birthday Posters
Beginning in 2019, the LWVPGH embarked on a program to support the voter registration procedures for eligible high school students in a five county area in western Pennsylvania. Through the creation and distribution of “Happy 18th Birthday” posters complete with a targeted QR Code for scanning, the LWVPGH reaches out to an estimated 20,000 senior high school students each year. (Photo below.) Upon scanning, students are routed to Rock the Vote, a national website that allows students to register for text or email reminders about their upcoming elections and then on to the Pennsylvania registration portal at Vote.pa.gov. Students with a PA driver’s license or a PA-ID can register online as their signature is already uploaded to the State. It is a quick and easy process.
In August of each year, three to five posters are sent to principals, teachers and guidance counselors in 91 school districts across Allegheny, Westmoreland, Beaver, Butler, and Washington Counties. All public high schools and career training centers are included. It is suggested that the posters are hung in senior homerooms, libraries, cafeterias, guidance offices, and anywhere students gather. The mailing is followed by email communication to the schools on a six-week basis to remind teachers and principals to direct students to the posters for registration. Emails include important civic/election deadlines and the information can be shared in school announcements, newsletters and websites. The 2024-25 school year saw over 700 scans of the posters.
For the 2025-2026 school year, we added the private and parochial schools in the area. For the future we would like to add two more counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, Fayette and Green to our list. These two counties are quite rural and would benefit from an easily accessible registration process. These counties are not served by other LWV Chapters. This project is a simple and effective way of introducing the League and our nonpartisan resources to principals, teachers and new youth voters. Green County has six high schools and one technical center. Fayette County has six high schools and three technical centers.
This project has gained momentum in other locations. Two LWV Chapters in California and one in Colorado have duplicated this program for their schools!
Currently, the printing and postage costs for this project are $2300. Postage is the most significant cost of this project. To keep the posters looking sharp and publicly presentable, they must be mailed at a package rate. Expanding this program and allowing for a rise in postal rates would cost an estimated $2500 per annum.
Our outreach has seven major components: Voter Resource Library, Independent Learning Modules, High School Outreach, Civic Education High School Outreach MODEL, College-University Outreach, Gen Z Outreach, Community Outreach.
Voter Resource Library includes 50+ free, downloadable digital resources including infographics, explainers, tutorials and other documents. Most current or new graphics may be located at the top of the page. Graphics of a triangle (Allegheny County), keystone (Pennsylvania), and US Flag (Civics) help users search for the information they need.
INDEPENDENT LEARNING MODULES
Independent Learning Modules (tutorials) are short PowerPoint slides in a Notes format and viewed as a pdf for independent learning. Coming soon—we are working to make these “Talking Presentations”.
HIGH SCHOOL OUTREACH
Our Civic Education High School Voter Outreach program includes virtual and in-person classroom lessons and digital resources for teachers and students. We begin each year by reaching out to the 40+ public school districts, including charters, in the Pittsburgh area. We focus on the high schools in our resilient, underserved communities. Over the past five years, we have presented in-person and virtual classroom presentations to at least 3000 students and received at least 2000 voter registrations–with the help of our dedicated presenters and committed volunteers. In virtual classroom lessons conducted during the pandemic, we promoted Turbovote.org as a voter registration platform. The advantage of Turbovote is that multiple and ongoing reminder text messages about voter registration status and each current election are sent to the students who sign up. With the addition of a “dynamic” Turbovote QR code, we can for the first time in 2022, track how many clicks our posters or presentation slides receive. A click doesn’t mean that the individual follows through to register to vote, but it does show interest and does give us data. Over the years, we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and teachers about our program. For more, see the Civic Ed High School Outreach Model.
CIVIC EDUCATION HIGH SCHOOL OUTREACH MODEL 2021-2022
We designed this outreach model to assist any League of Women Voters group or r community members interested in starting a High School Voter Outreach Program. To download the resources we use, please click here.
LWVPGH CIVIC EDUCATION MODEL 2021-2022 PDF
The Model is divided into sections which fully explain: Forming a Civic Education team; Developing a Dynamic Program; Structuring High School Outreach; Getting the Word Out; and Funding. The APPENDIX includes all of the free, downloadable resources used in the program, including a preview of the PowerPoint presentation. (The presentation can be shared upon request.) Please copy this link to share: www.lwvpgh.org/docs.ashx?id=831952.
Our volunteers share LWVPGH digital resources with College and University staff and students to amplify our reach through school social media, newsletters, websites, and email.
We send “Teasers”, which are short social media messages with links to relevant infographics, explainers, and other documents. Sharing these resources directly with college and university staff and students helps them find reliable and trustworthy voting, election, and government information.
Each year we also are invited to many college-university classrooms or student unions to present our PowerPoints and to register students to vote.
GEN Z Webpage
Our GEN Z page contains information tailored to the young voter. Besides our voter registration effort, we are also working to recruit student members for the League of Women Voters. Included on this webpage are sections about why voting is crucial for our democracy, how to make a voting plan, a political party quiz users can take, and our Happy Birthday and Claim Your Power posters with QR codes for voter registration.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Printed Materials: During the pandemic, we also learned about our resilient communities. Because of COVID and other factors, a segment as large as 40% of our Pittsburgh community did not have access to reliable technology in 2020-21. That need continues into 2022. To respond to this need our team:
2019-20: Created and distributed grant-funded, printed voter materials. Ready-Set-VOTE! door hanger bags of materials for over 2000 individuals resulted in new voter registrations–like the 187 student registrations at Pittsburgh Public Schools. These bags contained voter registration forms and instructions, but also our unique Civic Education infographics with topics like election specific infographics, Fact or Fiction and Know Your Rights on Election Day .
For the 2021 Municipal Primary, printed voter materials for 1200 individuals were created and distributed.
For the Municipal General Election on November 2, 2021, 1000 Ready-Set-VOTE! bags were distributed to school and community partners.
For the 2022 Primary and General Elections, we are planning to deliver up to 8000 bags to our community partners and schools.
Community Presentations: Our outreach includes conducting presentations that have a civic education and voter registration focus. For example, we present to groups like: individuals in senior centers, groups of individuals with disabilities, civic groups like Rotary Clubs, and to union workers.
We believe in sharing our resources. On our Presentation Library web page, we make our community and school PowerPoints available to League and community members.
Audiences Served
Our target audiences include high school, college, and university students, although we have also presented to middle school students.
Resources have been shared with the following community audiences: LWVPA (State League), and League members in local Leagues in Pennsylvania like Abington/Cheltenham/Jenkintown, Westmorland County, Erie, Lycoming County, Lewisburg, and others. Our resources are shared on an ongoing basis with community partners like Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP), Casa San Jose, Voter Empowerment Education & Enrichment Movement Pittsburgh (VEEEM), Jewish Community Center Pittsburgh (JCC), Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), Carnegie Library system, including Mt. Lebanon Library, and many senior housing sites in the Pittsburgh area. Our reach extends to Leagues across the county in Maine, Maryland, Tennessee, Mississippi, and North Carolina.
For the Civic Education wrapper, the primary audience is our 4th through 6th grade students. Beginning this school year, high school seniors will also visit Biz Town for a new program. All students are accompanied by teachers, parents, corporate sponsors, and adult volunteers.
For the Happy Birthday posters, the primary audience is eligible high school students, usually seniors, who are turning 18 years old. However, any eligible adult can utilize the poster QR code to register.
Successful Impact
Over the years we have made presentations to at least 3000 students with at least 2500 voter registrations completed. In 2022 we may dramatically extend our results with over 3000 Ready-Set-Vote bags of voter registration printed materials that will go to Pittsburgh Public Schools alone.
After each presentation, we send a Google Feedback form to students. This PowerPoint describes the result of some of this data: To view, download or share, please copy this link into your browser: www.lwvpgh.org/docs.ashx?id=964282
In 2022, we have also expanded our ability to collect data with the addition of dynamic, trackable QR codes embedded within our voter registration posters and presentation slides.
Our community partners depend on us to provide timely, reliable voting, election, and government information and frequently repost our information and resources on their websites.
Recommendations for adaptation and/or replication
In our Voter Resource Library, all of our 50+ infographics, explainers, Independent Learning Modules, and other documents are free to view, download, and share. We have a Presentation Library with previews of nine PowerPoints for use with high schools, colleges, and universities (full-length PowerPoints are shared when requested), in addition to five full-length, downloadable PowerPoints for community use.
Our Civic Education High School Outreach MODEL is a comprehensive document that allows any League (or any) group to replicate our program, from organizing a team to evaluating results. In the Appendix are all of the free, downloadable documents that are part of the program.
Additional information can be found on our Civic Education in Schools and Community web page.
Contact information
Amy Kleissas at civic.education@lwvpgh.org 412-600.2581
Amy Kleissas, (she, her)
League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh
Director, Civic Education in Schools and Community
civic.education@lwvpgh.org 412.600.2581
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- Lead Civics Educator: Susan Duncan
- HS Outreach Coordinator: Joanne Moore, moorej1787@gmail.com
- College-University Coordinator: Amy Kleissas
- Community Coordinator: Michele Knoll, advocacy@lwvpgh.org
- Team Presenters: Susan Fair, Michelle Grant, Doug Spindler, Greg Garbinsky