Who We Are
Youth Democracy Works is a youth civic participation program serving the Pittsburgh region. We put the tools of local democracy directly in young people's hands — in the schools and libraries they already trust, in the years before they can vote.
We started from a simple observation: young people are ready to shape their communities, but the systems around them rarely give them real standing to do it. Traditional civic education teaches young people about democracy. We hand them the tools and let them practice it — running real polls, gathering real input, and bringing real voices to the people who make decisions.
How we work
A weekly cycle
Learn. Each week starts with a short brief on a real local issue — a zoning decision, a budget line, a policy under debate — written in plain language, not bureaucratic jargon.
Engage. Students take what they've learned to their peers and neighbors, running community polls and gathering input from people who'd otherwise never weigh in.
Collect. They turn that input into real data — a clear picture of what their community actually thinks.
Deliver. They bring that data to the people making decisions, entering resident voices into the formal public record.
Lead. And they manage their own civic projects, making real decisions with a real say.
What makes it work
Paid, not volunteer. Students earn an hourly wage. Civic participation shouldn't be a luxury only some families can afford.
Flexible. One to two hours a week, built around students' lives — not one more thing they can't fit in.
Real stakes. This isn't a simulation. The polls are real, the data is real, and it reaches real decision-makers.
Built where students already are. We run inside the libraries and schools young people already trust, not as one more outside program asking them to show up somewhere new.