Camden Teens Working to Increase Voter Participation through Rutgers STARR Program

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN --  This summer, directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, the birthplace of American freedom, six Camden teens will hit the streets to promote citizenship and democracy in their home town.

As part of the STARR (Sports Teaching Adolescents Responsibility and Resiliency) program at Rutgers—Camden, these teens are being trained to canvass the city and encourage eligible citizens to vote.  They’ll spend four hours a day going door to door encouraging enlisted voters to vote and helping unregistered voters to sign up.

Working with Rutgers students, the teens will operate in a decidedly non-partisan fashion.

The adolescents received a four-day civic education curriculum that included background on the political and electoral processes.  They also were trained in the areas of voting rights, requirements, and registration.

“We hope that the adolescents are able to complete and submit 1,000 voter registration applications by the end of the project,” says Robert Atkins, an assistant professor of nursing at Rutgers and co-founder of the STARR program. “Moreover, we hope that this project provides the adolescents with an opportunity to develop the civic skills and knowledge they will need to achieve healthy and constructive adulthoods.”

The voter registration team encourages eligible voters to vote and provides such important information to eligible voters as the location of their polling station. The team also helps eligible adults interested in registering to vote by providing forms in English, Spanish, and Cantonese; helping adults to complete the forms; and offering to provide a reminder for the newly registered voters to exercise their right.  Those being registered decide whether to mail in the form or have their sealed registration form mailed in by the STARR team.

Atkins helped to launch the STARR Program in 1995 while he was a school nurse at East Camden Middle School.  In partnership with co-founder Daniel Hart, a distinguished professor of psychology at Rutgers—Camden, Atkins sought to foster the development of responsibility and resiliency in young teenagers through sports, community service, academic enrichment and the opportunity to form meaningful relationships with caring consistent adults.

While Atkins now teaches research methods and pediatric primary care to Rutgers nursing students, he remains committed to Camden’s kids.  During the past three summers, STARR teens have implemented projects designed to benefit Camden’s children and families living in Camden. These projects included a hand-washing intervention for school-age children and a neighborhood data collection project.

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