Despite decades of passing civic initiatives to revitalize civic education, youth citizen participation, and young adult voter registration is low--most youth cannot even name one member of U.S. Congress. It also cannot be assumed youth will naturally become civically engaged and aware through their family and community. In addition, people of color are often the group most affected by public policies; however, they often have the lowest percentage of voter turnout. Despite the overall trends of disengagement, current research on civic engagement has offered several possibilities for increasing youth civic engagement. Research has shown how youth can successfully continue civic participation from adolescence to adulthood through civic engagement activities/or programs. Using a theoretical framework, action civics, this study investigated the questions: (a) In what ways is youth civism taught or programs implemented in a selected Bay Area education organization?, and (b) How do these civic learning opportunities influence youth to advocate for change or identify public issues that impact them? This study examined how one organization invested in their youth to provide authentic civic engagement and realistic civic opportunities outside of the classroom and beyond the East Bay area for youth to learn civic knowledge and practice skills through a guided experiential approach called action civics. This study also documented how this organization has supported youth advocacy for change and has identified public issues that impact them, which resulted in the personal transformation of the participating students. The findings substantiated how this organization, Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center in Oakland, CA, can serve as an exemplar for achieving high-quality educational results according to the six principles of civic education established by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL, 2003). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]