Communications Guidance

Communications Guidance

Tips for Successful Civic Learning Week Communication

Keep it Nonpartisan, Positive, and Inclusive

Civic learning is about our life together within the United States. Everyone should feel included in our nation’s shared story, regardless of political leaning or any given demographic. Likewise, any Civic Learning Week events and messaging should be nonpartisan, positive, and inclusive. 

  • Avoid any appeals based on party affiliation or particular candidates or ballot measures.
  • Nonpartisan messaging has the added bonus of being more effective at gaining trust than messaging with a partisan tilt! 
  • To help keep your communications uplifting and positive, lead with statements that focus on shared values, such as ensuring every voice is heard, and building a strong constitutional democracy in which people are empowered to select their elected officials and engage in their communities around issues of importance to them.

Goals

★ Lift up the importance of high-quality civic education for each and every student in the United States;

★ Build excitement about civic learning and engagement as a lifelong endeavor;

★ Amplify and celebrate model civic educators and engaging civic learning opportunities taking place in communities across the United States; 

★ Engage the public around the importance of civic learning and elevating it as a national priority; and

★ Ensure everyone has the opportunity to gain the civic knowledge, skills,and dispositions that are foundational to informed engagement in our self-governing society.

Lift Up the Importance of Civic Learning

The overall goal of Civic Learning Week is to focus attention on the need to prioritize civic learning as a means to sustain and strengthen our constitutional democracy. As a bonus, this is something on which people across the political spectrum agree. 

If you are communicating publicly and/or talking with the media, be sure to include key talking points (found below) on this broader subject in addition to any particulars around your activities. Connecting to the larger movement and showing the broad-based support for high-quality civic education helps advance civic learning as a national priority.

Choose Trusted Messengers 

People respond best to trusted messengers in the workplace, in their communities, and in their personal networks of friends and family. And this is one of the strengths of civic learning and Civic Learning Week—time and again, educators in our local schools and communities rank high among the professionals in which people put their trust. Interpersonal communications from such messengers that feel personal, conversational, and timely are most effective.

Sample Talking Points

Use these talking points as starting points. Feel free to blend in facts, figures, and anecdotes about your own community.

About Civic Learning Week

  • Civic Learning Week brings together students, educators, policymakers, and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight and further energize the movement for civic education in states and communities across the nation.
  • In order to underscore the need to prioritize civic learning across the country, Civic Learning Week highlights the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that provide the foundation for an informed and engaged populace, sustaining and strengthening constitutional democracy in the United States.
  • Civic Learning Week brings focus to the important role of civic education in sustaining and strengthening our constitutional democracy. The week brings people together around the need to make high-quality civic education a national priority.
  • Civic Learning Week reminds all of us of our role as part of this self-governing society, and that each one of us should strive to make civic learning and engagement a lifelong endeavor.
  • Goals of Civic Learning Week
    • Providing positive and engaging civic learning opportunities;
    • Engaging the public around the importance of civic learning and elevating it as a national priority;
    • Providing a mechanism for educators, students, coalition partners, business leaders, and other community members to connect at the local level and beyond around a shared commitment to civic education.
  • Civic Learning Week started locally in New York City in 2020. Local efforts expanded to Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 2022 before going national in 2023. In 2025, there was participation in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with proclamations in more than 20 states/localities and events/activities hosted by more than 800 schools and 100 partners and host organizations.

About the Need for Civic Learning

  •  Civic learning is essential to ensuring each and every person across this country is equipped with the necessary tools to engage as informed members of our self-governing society. 
  • The best civic learning happens both in and outside of the classroom, and is a lifelong endeavor touching every facet of society.
  • As Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor regularly said, “The practice of democracy is not handed down through the gene pool. It must be taught and learned by each new generation.”
  • A high-quality civic education develops independent thinking skills, building on foundational knowledge to build concrete skills necessary for informed and engaged participation in our self-governing society.

What is Civics?

Dictionary definition: the study of the rights and obligations of citizens in society

In our self-governing society, it is essential that each and every person have a solid understanding of how our constitutional democracy works and the role they play.

At its simplest, “civics” is about community— how we live and work together.

  • For our youngest learners, this looks like “circle time” and starting to identify with communities beyond their families. What are the class norms and rules and how are we as classmates accountable to one another? As students get older, this can expand to the school and larger community in different ways.

Check out the “This is Civics” video and add your own reflection…

Key 2026 Messages

About Civic Learning Week 2026

  • Civic Learning Week 2026 (March 9–13)—themed Liberty and Learning: Civic Education at 250 seeks to highlight the importance of civic learning, from the nation’s founding to today and for the future of constitutional democracy in the United States.
  • Thousands of schools and organizations across the country will be participating in Civic Learning Week: civiclearningweek.org/events
Liberty and Learning Civic Education at 250 with stylized orange and blue people making up open book with star

KEY MESSAGE #1: Liberty and Learning: Civic Education at 250

  • Civic learning is essential to sustaining and strengthening our nation’s constitutional democracy.
  • As we celebrate the nation’s 250th in 2026, we reflect on the important role of civic learning in the history and development of the nation while considering the kind of civic learning needed for the next 250 years and beyond.

KEY MESSAGE #2: Voters across the political spectrum support civic education

  • Poll after poll indicates that parents, and voters more generally, across the political spectrum agree on the importance of civic education—both the need for more of it and for it to be better funded.
  • There is also broad agreement on what we want for our kids’ civic education, namely to gain the concrete tools, skills, and resources needed to be successful in an increasingly diverse society and workplace. 
  • Across the political spectrum, more than 75% of likely voters agreed with the following statement: “Education should expose students to a range of viewpoints, not just one point of view, even if I disagree with it” (Cygnal, 2022)
  • Difference is a hallmark—not a bug—of democracy. What civic learning provides are the skills to engage in productive dialogue around difference.

KEY MESSAGE #3: Civics is more than voting

  • While national elections garner a lot of attention, civics extends far beyond the voting booth to engagement in one’s community, volunteering, participating in group activities, serving in the military, building knowledge on important issues, and more.
  • Not only are students who experience a high-quality K–12 civic education more likely to vote and discuss issues at home, but also to complete college and develop employable skills; volunteer and work on community issues; and confidently speak publicly and communicate with their elected representatives (Brookings Institute. 2020).
  • We know that there is a strong relationship between civic education and engagement and expressed satisfaction in and commitment to democracy (Citizen Data, 2023).
  • Given its practical nature, civics can enhance other subjects with real-world applications, providing the background knowledge for increased literacy, making history relevant in today’s context, and more.

Sample Communications Timeline

Following is a sample timeline for sharing information about Civic Learning Week in 2026, and promoting your participation through your organization’s/school’s communications channels. Depending on your goals, you can incorporate some, all, or none of these dates into your communications efforts, while also using other key moments that are important in your community.

Please consult the social media kit on our website for downloadable social media copy and graphics, logo art, and more.

Two Months Before Civic Learning Week (early/mid-January)
  • Announce your participation in Civic Learning Week, March 9–13, 2026.
  • Encourage others in your community to join in the effort by signing up at CivicLearningWeek.org. Spread the word through your appropriate communications channels.
  • Highlight the importance of civic learning as we head into the nation’s 250th in 2026.
  • Plan your participation/event. Look for opportunities to collaborate.
    One Month Before Civic Learning Week (early/mid-February)
    • Get a resolution in support of Civic Learning Week passed by local and/or state bodies; be sure to share this when passed and just ahead of Civic Learning Week.
    • Share your planned events on the official Civic Learning Week events map. As appropriate, use that link to promote your event/activity, attracting volunteers, participants, and local media. You can also search for other events in your area for a chance to collaborate.
      PLEASE NOTE: School events and those not open to the public will be shown differently on the map. We welcome submission of any and all involvement so we can most fully represent the breadth of schools participating.

      • Send out an initial press advisory as soon as you have the who, what, where, when, and why of your event. Be sure to follow-up with a phone call. 
      • Remind your community about your participation in this year’s Civic Learning Week and encourage people to get engaged.
      • Promote your participation and encourage other organizations of all stripes and sizes to join in the national effort by signing up on the Civic Learning Week website.
      Two Weeks Before Civic Learning Week (last week of February)
      • Remind your stakeholders about and promote your involvement with Civic Learning Week, encouraging people to join the movement to prioritize civic education across the nation.
      • Keep your community and online followers informed of upcoming events. It is important for them to hear about your activities over time leading up to Civic Learning Week in order to increase the likelihood of their participation.
        One Week Before Civic Learning Week
        • This final push prior to Civic Learning Week should consist of frequent, daily postings to social media and repeated messaging about the importance of civic learning.
        • Continue your media outreach—reminding the media of your event and Civic Learning Week more broadly as it nears are essential. Be sure to re-send your media advisory the day before your event as a final reminder.
        • Increase social media posts, with a focus on why civic learning is important in this presidential election year and beyond!
        • Prepare for the big week and make sure you know your stuff! Review the key messages and prepare a few talking points specific to your efforts and how they fit into making civic learning a nationwide priority.
          ** Civic Learning Week– March 9–13, 2026 **
          • Kick off Civic Learning Week strong, welcoming the week in celebratory fashion through your email lists and across your social channels. Be sure to lift up the importance of civic learning and how people can help make it a nationwide priority.
          • Use our hashtag—#CivicLearningWeek—to help amplify the nationwide nature of Civic Learning Week and the importance of making civic learning a national priority.
          • Invite your stakeholders to your event and push your event to the public. This is your last chance to let people know about your event and get them to participate. 
          • Send out a full press release, as appropriate, including availability of any opportunities for photos/video, to ensure that your event is getting the coverage it warrants.
            Day/Week After
            • Share a full press release related to your participation in Civic Learning Week, as appropriate.
            • Share any photos on your website, social channels, and local media sites. (Be sure you have the appropriate permissions in place.) 
            • Stay engaged! Continue to share examples of civic learning and lift up its importance. 
            • Consider leveraging other civic learning and engagement opportunities throughout the year, like Civic Season (June 19–July 4), Constitution Day (September 17), and other civic holidays.

              Download Tailored Planning Toolkits

              Educators
              Organizations / Influencers
              Policymakers / Public Officials
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              2026 Civic Learning Week Educator Toolkit cover

              Get the Educator Toolkit to access resources for planning and communicating your participation in Civic Learning Week. The toolkit includes planning resources, sample social media posts, graphic assets, and more.

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              cover image for Civic Learning Week Toolkit for Policymakers / Public Officials

              Get the Legislator Toolkit to access resources related to Civic Learning Week. This toolkit is designed to provide tailored ideas for planning and participating in Civic Learning Week, as well as communications resources.