Building the Future Together: Promoting Civic Engagement Among Latino Youth

This report focuses on the civic engagement of Latino high school students in North Carolina who were enrolled in 10th grade during the 2007-08 academic year and 12th grade during the 2009-10 academic year. Civic engagement is broadly defined to encompass attention to politics, the development of a political identity and national interest, and individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern (Levine 2008; García Bedolla 2006). Civic engagement includes both electoral (e.g., voting) and nonelectoral activities (e.g., participating in voluntary organizations) and encompasses daily activities and routines that promote an individual’s understanding of political systems and knowledge of current events (e.g., reading the newspaper).