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The Founders Project

Building the future is a skill. We are teaching it early.

Democracy does not run on good intentions alone. It depends on people who know how to organize, advocate, collaborate, and lead. The Founders Project is a civic learning experience for students in grades 6 through 12 that develops those skills through facilitated simulations and practical problem solving.

Students practice the work of building a society: sharing resources, making rules, resolving conflict, protecting rights, responding to crisis, and improving institutions that are not working. The goal is a generation that is not only eligible to lead, but ready.

Black middle and high school students collaborating on a civics project around a table

What students practice.

  • Deciding together

    Sharing resources, making rules, and negotiating choices as a group with real stakes.

  • Protecting rights

    Recognizing when a system is failing people, and building the case for change.

  • Leading through crisis

    Responding to unexpected events and improving institutions that are not working.