What Works for Civic Engagement: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions

This fact sheet from Child Trends synthesizes the lessons learned from evaluated interventions in education and civic engagement. The findings are based on the Child Trends database of experimental evaluations of social interventions for children and youth - LINKS (Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully). There are only a small number of rigorous evaluations of programs to promote youth civic engagement. This limits conclusions and highlights the need for more experimentally evaluated programs and interventions that target civic engagement outcomes. Among the findings of this Child Trends fact sheet: Connecting children with needy populations and/or providing community service opportunities is effective in increasing helping behavior and perceptions of social responsibility; monetary compensation was not found to undermine future helping behaviors in either experimental evaluation that provided payment for performing community service; all three programs that incorporated mentoring, tutoring, or life skill training components in tandem with service learning had positive impacts on civic engagement. The fact sheet also includes a table that shows whether the evaluated programs were found to work, not proven to work, or had mixed findings.