Encouraged by Obama’s call to young people, “to take up the baton,” Chicago youth will gather to showcase their year-long activism effort to better their schools and neighborhoods at the Mikva Challenge 15th Annual Action Civics Showcase on May 23, 2017 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Mikva Challenge will host the Showcase in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Civic Engagement and Service Learning. Youth will meet political and community leaders at the Showcase and will be awarded badges for civic action, research and community building. To stand-up against current immigration policies, youth leaders at Benito Juarez Academy are engaging lawmakers on the local, state, and national level. To increase teen employment in the summer, youth from Excel Academy in Marquette Park organized a job fair with over 25 businesses offering employment opportunities.

To increase youth engagement in local politics, youth from Sullivan High School drafted a project proposal to be put on the ballot for the 49th Ward PB process, and they also launched a GOTV campaign to get their peers to vote. “I’m working Mikva for the recycling project and each day we collect food that so many students throw away. This food could be given to those that actually need it. Saving food also helps students see that they are wasting most of not, not eating it, and that throwing it away is just wrong,” said Khadijah Zaki from Mather High School, who is working on a food recycling and waste elimination project this year with her peers. The Action Civics Showcase is a culminating event of the Democracy in Action program that had 2,500 youth participants from over 60 schools throughout the Chicagoland area this year. The event will be held at the Cultural Center located at 78 E. Washington, Chicago, IL from 4p.m., to 6p.m.