Agency Details:

Kids Voting Kansas

The mission of Kids Voting Kansas is to increase lifelong voter participation by educating Kansas’s elementary and secondary students and involving them in the voting process. To fulfill its mission, Kids Voting Kansas encourages student involvement through family, community, and school partnerships.

Description:
Kids Voting Kansas, an affiliate of Kids Voting USA ®, was created as a solution to citizen apathy and poor voter turnout. Kids Voting sparks a renewed interest in American democracy. Kids Voting Kansas has received enthusiastic responses from educators, volunteers, parents, and most importantly, the students.

Students are not only exposed to the basics of an election, they also experience information gathering, decision-making, and the empowerment of voting. Students are active participants in this learning process, discussing and debating the election in school and at home.

History:
Kids Voting is modeled after a similar program in Costa Rica, a strong democracy with a consistent voter turnout rate between 80 and 90 percent. For more than 40 years, the children of Costa Rica have learned about and practiced democracy in the classroom and at home, and have accompanied their parent to the polls on Election Day to “vote” using their own ballot.

Kids Voting Kansas, an affiliate of Kids Voting USA®, began in 1992 in six Kansas communities. The program now encompasses 50 communities with over 180,000 students.

Contact person: Julie Holmes, Program Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (785) 271-7341

Address:

5423 SW 7th St Topeka, KS 66606 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.kidsvotingkansas.org

Directions:

From 1-70 East: Take the Fairlawn exit. Turn south (left) onto Fairlawn Road and travel through the first traffic light. Turn west (right) onto 7th St (the first street after the traffic light by the Holiday Inn).. . . (more)

Last updated on October 12, 2009