We improve our communities, spread big ideas, and train youth leaders to increase civic participation.
Are you a high school student?
Join the Civic Service FellowshipFellows are building inclusive teams, laying foundations for democracy, and leading actions in Chapters throughout the U.S.
Rhizome is a nonpartisan nonprofit co-founded by 90 young people across the U.S. in August 2021. Our purpose is to build collective power for young people to create the safer, happier, and healthier world they want to live in.
We are committed to power sharing, as students vote on all nominees to our Board of Directors, decide the unified actions we take, and vote to shape changes to Rhizome’s overall goals, vision, and shared work environment. By inviting students to gain leadership experience and build habits based on who they want to become, we promote youth mental health, inspire responsibility, and create paths to lifelong leadership.
Rhizome is a space for action and ideas, a home for emerging leaders to create the world we want to live in. We educate high school Civic Service Fellows and paid youth organizers as community leaders, imparting transferable life and career skills. We value inclusivity and peer-mentorship, as no past leadership experience is required for high school students to join the Fellowship!
Early Learnings
Youth Organizers led 24 Chapters of the Civic Service Fellowship in SY 2023-2024. Fellows experienced greater civic efficacy, willingness to build bridges, and self-confidence as leaders - as well as improved determinants of mental health along all six dimensions of Ryff's Scale of Psychological Well-Being - while making a tangible impact in their communities. Our experiment in democracy is working:
250+
high schools with teams of Civic Service Fellows
20,000+
peers who Fellows helped register or pre-register to vote from 2022-2024
100%
of Fellows recommend Rhizome to others who want to increase civic engagement or build actions in community
Identity Within Rhizome
Rhizome equips young people with the tools to become compassionate and effective lifelong leaders. Our community is made up of Fellows from all walks of life, and is grounded by three pillars:
Meaning
Building relationships, conversations, actions
Freedom
Choosing and shaping the actions we take
Purpose
Focusing on the moral impact we want to make
Fellowship Demographics
Our mission is to activate young people's identities into action and help youth treat civic service as the work of a lifetime. We all come from different walks of life, yet we share the desire to create a country that lives up to its values. We know that differences in our lived experiences and ideas make Rhizome stronger, and we embrace our differences while honoring our common ground as human beings.
26.5%
of Fellows identify as Latino/a
25%
of Fellows identify as AAPI
22.9%
of Fellows identify as Black
10.8%
of Fellows identify as White
9.7%
of Fellows identify as Mixed-Race
3.9%
of Fellows identify as SWANA
1.2%
of Fellows identify as Native
Nonpartisanship
Breakdown of Democratic Practices
The U.S. has long been suffering a breakdown of institutions that build democratic practices. At the same time, our country is suffering from a process we call “partisan capture”, where parties and media capture an overwhelming amount of civic attention. As a result, Americans invest our time into national, polarized forms of discourse rather than building relationships or taking local actions in our communities. Slowly but surely, we become followers rather than doers.
Students and Schools Are Under Attack
Meanwhile, school systems and young people are under attack by underfunding, mass shootings, and a national discourse that devalues teachers, students, and the role of education in equipping young people to build healthy relationships with each other. Many students are school avoidant, refusing to attend school while placing more weight on the shoulders of their parents.
Schools Can Become Spaces of Belonging
We are working for a future where schools are sites of belonging, empowerment, and hands-on practice for becoming responsible members of society. By training leaders and bridging schools with civic institutions, we enable young people to create the world they want to live in. We offer community, emotional tools, and civic skills to survive the present and build a healthier future.
Taking Responsibility For Our Country’s Future
We reckon with the responsibility that we have to co-create the future, just as we reckon with how far we are from the ideals in the Declaration of Independence, that it is the right of the people to institute government “that shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness." At a time when suicides have been climbing for two decades - and young people are afraid of being shot at school each day - we know this is not a country of Safety and Happiness for many young people.
Authentic Student Leadership and Representation
We work to represent the values and perspectives of young people. We don’t advocate for parties or candidates. We’re instead focused on closing the gap in representation, civic participation, and generational influence. This is why we are commited to power sharing, and why we invite Fellows to lead actions around the nonpartisan ideas they’re most passionate about.
Rhizome as a Network of Trust-Based Relationships
We’re dedicated to supporting emerging leaders in under-resourced communities, and inclusive of any young person who wants to work with us. If you are wondering if Rhizome is a fit for you, we do not care what party you belong to or where you’re from. We will support you to become a better leader, shape change, and to build relationships that let other young people do the same.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Some things are easier done than said.
In an era when mental health has been declining for two decades, the root causes of the crisis run deeper than politics. Politics is an outgrowth of culture, just the tip of the iceberg. Any long-term solution for national well-being must start at the level of culture: who we are, how we spend our time, and how we treat each other.
We believe the only way for our country to heal - for us to create a safer, happier, and healthier society - is with time. Young people must come together to build systems that fit the needs of modern people, modern conditions, modern tensions. Our faith in meliorism is why we build civic power for young people to create the world they want to live in.
This is why we have worked so carefully to create a self-organizing system. It's why we are nonpartisan, with loyalty to people over party. And it is why we are deeply focused on the work ahead: waiting to be done, to be thought, to be felt.
Join Us
Whether you are a high school student beginning your leadership journey or an adult who cares about the future of our country, we'd love to have you with us: