CLA
Civic Leadershipin Action Program

C-MSCL: Center for Middle School Civic Learning

A Pocket Guide for civic leadership in action.

A practical, five-step learning experience that helps educators and middle-school students move together from identity and belonging to inquiry, action, and celebration.

Created by DePaul University, College of Education, Office of Innovative Professional Learning (OIPL) in collaboration with the Barat Education Foundation, drawing on the civic-learning foundation of Our American Voice®.

Explore the Pocket Guide
Middle-school students collaborating around a community map in a Chicago classroom
Guidance at hand.Leadership in action.
01 The Pocket Guide

Teachers facilitate. Students participate. Each has a Pocket Guide.

The teacher Pocket Guide gives educators a simple, practical way to lead the program, find what they need, and keep the group moving together. The student Pocket Guide gives young people a clear companion for exploring, creating, collaborating, and reflecting as the program unfolds.

With a shared guide at hand, teachers and students can focus less on finding their place in the process—and more on participating fully in it.

Paired guides, shared purpose

Teacher guidance and student-facing materials make it easy for everyone to see what comes next.

Accessible by design

Student Pocket Guides are available in English and as a Spanish draft, with writable and downloadable materials for different ways of working.

Made for real participation

Students can explore ideas, work with others, create materials, and reflect on what they are learning.

Recognition that lasts

Learning and leadership have evidence.

EducatorsTeaching Micro-Credential

Teachers can earn a Civic Leadership in Action Teaching Micro-Credential from DePaul University, along with Illinois CPDUs.

StudentsFuture Leader Micro-Credential

A recognition pathway is taking shape around students’ civic inquiry, leadership, action, and reflection.

02 · The five-step program

One connected Civic Leadership in Action program.

These five steps give educators and students a clear next step while keeping the full program in view.

  1. 01

    Exploring Civic Identity

    Students begin with identity, belonging, and the four core principles of civic life.

  2. 02

    Civics in Action

    Young people investigate the people, places, systems, and questions that shape community life.

  3. 03

    Becoming a Civic Leader

    Values, vision, self-awareness, judgment, and relationships become capacities students can practice.

  4. 04

    Civic Purpose, Plan & Impact

    Teams research an issue they care about and develop an improvement plan for school or community.

  5. 05

    Voices of Impact — Share, Learn, & Celebrate

    Students choose evidence, reflect on their learning, and prepare to share their work at the Civic Leadership in Action Summit.

03 · Collaborators

Two programs, brought together for one unified experience.

DePaul University’s Office of Innovative Professional Learning and the Barat Education Foundation created Civic Leadership in Action by bringing DePaul OIPL’s Inspire & Impact leadership-development experiences alongside the established civic-learning foundation of Our American Voice®.

The Barat Education Foundation’s Our American Voice® civic-learning and engagement program, now housed at the Center on Representative Government at Indiana University, has joined the Office of Innovative Professional Learning at DePaul University to create this unified experience.

At every step, the Pocket Guide is designed to help educators make civic learning tangible—and help young people see themselves as thoughtful participants in the life of their communities.

This public overview shares the program’s purpose. Classroom workspaces and student submissions are separate from this page.

DePaul University
Barat Education Foundation
Program foundationsOur American Voice® civic learningInspire & Impact leadership development