2023 KVD Civic Leaders: Meet the Interns and Explore our Team Identity!
2023 Kids Voting Durham Civic Leaders Team
Welcome to the 2023 Summer Leads Interns blog series! This is the first of what will be many posts letting the Durham community in our creative process for this year’s election guide. This summer we have 23 Civic Leadership Interns ranging from ages 14 to 22. Out of those 23 interns, 4 will be first-time voters in the upcoming municipal election and 8 are returning KVD youth leaders!
We’ve spent the first few weeks of this internship program delving into our identity as a team. If you’ve interacted with the creation of a Kids Voting Durham election guide before in any capacity, you’ll know that the Real Colors personality inventory is truly a trademark of our work!
2023 Civic Leaders Real Colors Results
To give some context, Real Colors is not far off from a personality quiz like the Myers-Briggs; only it’s specifically applicable to both work and learning habits. As a lead intern team composed entirely of former KVD volunteers, we can all attest to having attended MANY Real Colors trainings. But, we can also attest to getting something new and valuable out of our color conversations every time! We always seek to learn not only about the ways we can best present our election guide materials to be accessible to everyone, but also how to foster a work environment for the creation of that information that is comfortable for all our interns.
This year our first event with this summer's interns was an all in-person Real Colors training. This allowed us to see the diversity and various work and learning habits of our team, and we have a color-balanced team is a strength as we create materials that are accessible and captivating for not only our team but the community as a whole.
Each of our four color groups encourages us to think differently, and view topics from varying perspectives.
The Oranges help us to keep up our competitive spirits! At our bi-weekly meetings, we’ve been playing bingo, Kahoot (that we hope to share with you all soon), and other fun games! Many of our interns have also won fun, civically-related prizes!
The Golds keep us on track. They organize their meetings, making sure that they have a task that they can do to help out.
The Blues assist us creatively and emotionally. They help the group to work together smoothly, and promote a positive work environment that gives everyone the chance to speak their mind.
The Greens think logically. They enjoy finding solutions to problems, and help to research whatever topic is undiscovered!
As we continue to work as a team, we learn more about each other and our learning and collaborative working styles daily.
As we learned more about our team identity and how to ensure the best collaboration we dove into additional quizzes that highlighted individuals strengths! We discovered a Civic Superpower Quiz, this quiz highlights that in order for us to power the future of democracy we all play different roles and must contribute our talents and strengths. We all have a role to play, every day in our communities, neighborhoods and social spaces. By discovering our talents and strengths we are able to grow our skills and help fuel a more collaborative democracy.
Each of our four “superpower” groups encourages us to work together to create change, and view topics from varying perspectives.
The Nurturers are crucial for sustaining the marathon of change! They care for and support individuals around them, ensuring that they are cheering on their team members every step of the way and nurturing them so they can perform their best. An example of a nurturer in history is Jane Addams!
The Connectors use their commitment and connections to help bring people, ideas, and movements together to create change! They are open-minded and make unlikely connections, helping build the bridges to overcome obstacles and reach the future we envision together. An example of a connector in history is Benjamin Franklin!
The Defenders are on the front lines to help keep the movement moving! They will stand up against any injustice they see, and are not scared of confrontation if it means it will help make a positive change. An example of a defender in history is Harriet Tubman!
The Amplifiers know how to capture the imagination of everyone around them! They hold lots of creativity and passion that they can help translate into ideas making them interesting and understandable for positive change to occur. An example of an amplifier in history is Ida B. Wells!
With this knowledge and understanding of how vital it is to have a balanced team identity the 2023 Civic Leadership Interns are able to share the skills and talents that they each hold! This balanced team has allowed us to produce, and envision so many great things so far. We cannot wait to see more of the amazing things this team of youth is able to provide to the Durham community. We cannot wait to share more with you in the next blog post.
