CalCenter's  Story 

The California Center for Civic Participation (CalCenter), founded in 1981, initially hosted the California Journal Magazine, a respected non-partisan publication on state politics. Under founding Executive Director James Muldavin, the organization shifted focus to empowering youth in the political process, launching its flagship program, Capitol Focus, which ran for 29 years.

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Since then, CalCenter has developed diverse civic education programs that engage youth in meaningful political and policy activities, inspiring them to participate in democracy. In the mid-90s, CalCenter expanded to youth leadership programs, preparing young people to tackle community challenges and work collaboratively to drive change. These initiatives address critical issues like mental health, sustainability, equal access to healthcare, and other equity and justice issues.

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Over the years, CalCenter has built strong partnerships with policymakers, community organizations, and sponsors to amplify the voices of California teens. Our programs have reached thousands of CA youth, via these free educational programs, we worked to demystify policy and empower youth to create meaningful change.

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As CalCenter evolves, it remains committed to its core values of equity & justice, centering humanity, impact, knowledge, community, and play. CalCenter continues to reassess its methods, being intentional about centering youth voices. Understanding that in order to best support youth we must stay humble, open-minded, and flexible. 

 

Looking ahead, CalCenter aims to expand opportunities for youth civic leadership across California communities but with great emphasis in serving historically marginalized and oppressed groups. We are energized to activate, educate and mobilize youth to shape their own future. This means sparking their interest in civics (community engagement), sharing information and resources youth needs to engage, and inspire and create opportunities for youth to take meaningful action. Parting from traditional views on civic participation, we definite as anything you do to improve your community.

 

We invite any community partners, alumni, youth, and adult allies to reach out and explore collaboration. For those who can, please donate to support our work.  

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Here’s to another 40 years of youth leadership and over 30,000 lives transformed!

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Click here to view and download an evaluation report of the CalCenter conducted by consultant, Shiree Teng. This report details the impact we have had over our 38-year history and provides crucial feedback from partners, long time sponsors and alumni of our programs.