The Youth Urban Agenda Civic Literacy Project is an effort to promote activities that educate students in terms of their civic responsibilities with the experience of building a real political agenda. The Project is implemented by the following three phases:

1) Students generate an urban-conscious agenda. This process begins in the classroom where students learn to identify their needs. In the process of creating that agenda, the students will answer five key questions:

• Where do I want to be in Five years?
• Where would I like my community to be in five years?
• What kind of an education do I need to get there?
• What kind of an urban agenda do we need to make it possible?
• What am I willing to do about it?

2) Students learn about the political process as they research and debate specific agenda items. During this phase, public officials, community activists and other Resource Personnel volunteer to discuss their own professional roles, experiences, and/or to address substantive issues - such as environmental concerns, poverty, drugs, crime - that the students may list as agenda items.

3) Students become involved in more participatory efforts. There are many ways to get students participating in their society.  Students can organize voter registration efforts and collect pledges from citizens who promise to vote. Students may also hold job interviews for candidates running for office.

4) The schools later meet in clusters of two or more schools across geographic, economic, racial/cultural lines to discuss agendas and formulate one agenda from the cluster.  This can be done at the school level, combining classes of different grade levels and subjects.  Ultimately, the students meet in a large convention, which includes many schools, where they learn to work with convention rules and prioritize the agenda items that the convention will present to governmental officials.