Level Up Civics Foundation is a California nonprofit. We connect students to real community challenges through game-based civic design, and we bring together the educators, county offices of education, local government and technology partners it takes to get a student's idea in front of someone who can act on it.
Level Up Civics gives students a real community problem, a game-based world to build their solution in, and a real decision-maker to pitch it to. When students know their ideas can reach the people in charge, an assignment becomes advocacy.
The principle behind the program: a specific place, a specific problem, and an audience who will actually turn up produce better student work than an open prompt. What comes out the other side are students who have investigated something, designed for it, built it, and argued for it in public.
A real community challenge in their own county rather than a fictional scenario
A Minecraft Education environment built around their actual county
Local leaders who are in the room to listen as much as to judge
Civic confidence and work habits that outlast the class they were learned in
These two names get used interchangeably, so it is worth separating them. One is the organization. The other is what it currently runs.
A California nonprofit, 501(c)(3) status pending. Our work is getting students into real civic problems and getting their proposals in front of the people who decide. Battle of the Counties is how we do that today. It is not the whole of what the foundation is for.
Our current flagship experience. Schools Reinventing Counties is the Minecraft Education world and the learning inside it. Battle of the Counties is the academic esports competition built around it, running through the Statewide Championship on January 9, 2027.
See how the two fit together →
"This is not about playing a game. It is about student voice, civic engagement, and showing our students that their ideas can lead real change."
County education offices anchor the program. When a county commits, the world gets built and every school in that region gets access. The county brings the institutional credibility, the licensing coordination, and somewhere to hold the event.
Mission-aligned organizations fund the county world builds and program operations. Each world is a one-time build that then serves cohort after cohort. It behaves more like infrastructure than like a program you have to fund again every year.
Local government partners bring a genuine community challenge and a commitment to show up and hear what students propose. Their presence is what raises the stakes. Students pitch to people who can act on what they hear.
Teachers facilitate the design process. The worlds come built and the rounds come structured, so educators can take students through investigation, design and advocacy without building anything themselves.
Lifeboat Studios builds every county world on real local geography, landmarks, and community life using Minecraft Education, with no work required from school staff.
Grades 3–12 students across California who investigate real challenges, build solutions, and pitch their ideas to the leaders making decisions in their communities. The whole program is built around what happens when they know their work matters.
For partnership inquiries, program questions, or press, reach us at info@levelupcivicsfoundation.org. Level Up Civics Foundation is a California nonprofit. 501(c)(3) status pending.