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Our Mission: Kids Voting Buncombe County is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to securing the future of democracy by educating and involving youth in the election process today.
Our Objective: To educate students Grades K-12 of the rights and responsibilities associated with voting and to stimulate critical thinking skills necessary for making informed judgments as voters.
Why the Kids Voting Program is important:
- Creates an informed electorate
- Develops lifetime citizenship and voting habits in youth
How: Kids Voting Buncombe County partners with schools, youth organizations, after-school programs, parents, community members and election officials to offer students a wide range of opportunities for civic learning:
- A K-12 Civics Curriculum that introduces students to the concepts of citizenship in the earliest grades and continues throughout their school years. This ongoing education develops skills and habits for living in a democracy.
- Civics activities that are tools to help teachers meet the standards outlined in the North Carolina curriculum standard and can be fully integrated into the current classroom curriculum.
- After preparation students take part in a voting experience in school, on-line and in designated adult polling places using a ballot adapted from the adult ballot with the same candidates and issues This practice voting reinforces the knowledge and skills gained through Kids Voting classroom activities.
- Kids Voting offers a community service opportunity for High School Students. As part of our KV High School Forum, students raise election awareness, facilitate in-school voting, promote voter registration to students turning 18, encourage participation in the KV election and advise Kids Voting-Buncombe County on student issues. They are trained as KV precinct captains and volunteers and can earn community service credit.
Our program is school-based and made available to all public and private school teachers throughout Buncombe County for students in grades K-12.
This combination of classroom instruction, a practice voting experience and family dialogue makes Kids Voting a powerful strategy for achieving long-term voting behavior.
More than 45,000 student ballots have been cast with Kids Voting Buncombe County since 2000.
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