The American Conversation Project for Young Americans

Help your generation start a new kind of conversation inside of our communities.

Apply to Host!

About the project

The American Conversation Project is a national effort to get people talking – really talking – about their communities.

ACP is bringing people together across the country to share stories, listen deeply, and strengthen the bonds that hold us together. Young people across the country are stepping up as hosts — leading small-group, recorded conversations where their peers and community-members across age groups share what's on their minds: what they love about where they live, what feels broken, what they hope for, and how they want to take action.

Those stories don't disappear when the conversation ends. Using a combination of human listening and AI-assisted tools, ACP works with Cortico to surface insights from communities across the country and share them back — so young people can hear not just what their peers are saying, but what Americans everywhere are thinking and feeling.

ACP is a nonpartisan initiative led by the National Conference on Citizenship, in partnership with Cortico and a growing coalition of civic, cultural, education, faith, and media organizations.

Why young people

A lot of what our generation actually thinks lives in group chats, comment sections, and DMs — real opinions, shaped by feeds built to reward whoever's loudest, not whoever's most honest. That's not nothing. But it's not a conversation either.

This is a chance to take that energy offline — into a room at a library, a community center, a club meeting, wherever people already gather. And the room doesn't have to look like you: you're the one starting the conversation, but who shows up is up to you — neighbors, parents, teachers, anyone in your community. No facilitation training, no poli-sci degree, no big platform required. Just people around you, and an opportunity to get to know another and your community in a different way.

This opportunity is for young people ages 13–25. Those who are ages 13–17 can participate with permission of a parent/caregiver.

As a host, you'll:

  • Get certified from your phone. Complete 8 short, self-directed training modules — about 30–60 minutes total — to become a certified youth conversation host. No live sessions, no scheduling, just go at your own pace.

  • Bring together a small group from your community. Friends, neighbors, classmates, whoever you choose. Find a quiet spot to record, like a library room or community center

  • Lead and record at least 3 conversations. Upload the recordings, and the American Conversation Project team handles the rest.

What you get

Beyond contributing your generation's voice to a national record, here's what hosting includes:

  • A certified ACP Conversation Host credential to showcase facilitation skillset 

  • Hands-on practical experience leading real conversations 

  • The ACP Host Toolkit: conversation guide, outreach templates, and social assets

  • Named credit in ACP's national synthesis, shared through partners including local and national media organizations

  • Connection to a national network of peer youth hosts

Apply Here!

Timeline

Now:

Sign up and get certified — self-paced, no deadline

Ongoing:

Host your 3 conversations wherever works for you

By the end of 2026:

Help us reach 500 youth-led conversations nationwide

Have questions? Reach out to kate@ncoc.org.

Are you in a Knight City?

Thanks to generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and our incredible youth engagement partners at C&S, we’re expanding our efforts to the 26 Knight cities*. This program offers a limited number of stipends for youth hosts who complete the training and host 3 conversations. Apply today!

Apply to be a Knight Cities youth host

*California (Long Beach, San Jose), Colorado (Boulder), Florida (Bradenton, Miami, Palm Beach County, Tallahassee), Georgia (Columbus, Macon, Milledgeville), Indiana (Fort Wayne, Gary), Kansas (Wichita), Kentucky (Lexington), Michigan (Detroit), Minnesota (Duluth, St. Paul), Mississippi (Biloxi), North Carolina (Charlotte), North Dakota (Grand Forks), Ohio (Akron), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, State College), South Carolina (Columbia, Myrtle Beach), South Dakota (Aberdeen)

About the Partners

  • Cortico helps organizations listen better — through small-group conversations. We work with nonprofits, schools, newsrooms, and community groups that want to better understand the people they serve.

    Through recorded dialogue and a combination of human listening and AI-assisted tools, we help turn lived experience into insights that can actually be used — surfacing patterns across many conversations while keeping real voices at the center.

    Cortico has partnered with 300+ organizations across the globe, in cooperation with MIT's Center for Constructive Communication.

  • NCoC was founded in 1946 and chartered by Congress in 1953 to serve as a central hub for America’s efforts to make citizenship more effective by developing a field that contributes to a more active, alert, enlightened, conscientious, and progressive citizenry. Today, NCoC achieves that mission through a range of programs that enable communities to measure civic health through public data, empower stakeholders to leverage civic infrastructure to understand our digital civic discourse, and convene the wider community to ensure that our institutions centralize equity in our political representation. In addition to these year-round programs, NCoC hosts an Annual Conference that brings together the organizations and partners we serve with thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners to further the field of civic engagement.