Have them start in their world by coming up with an idea to enhance their school or district. Students can learn about the board policies that impact them, attend or speak at a school board meeting, and write letters or create campaigns around issues they feel would improve their classroom environment. You could also connect them to institutions that might offer grants to students towards their project ideas.

Over Christmas, we collected pet food and supplies for the local shelter. We set a group goal (4 classes working together). We told them that if they met the goal, we would have a group surprise. Of course, they met the goal. The shelter came in and shared stories of the animals and how their contributions helped.

Maybe you could expand this and have your students write persuasive bios for the animals to increase adoption chances?

One of the activities that I have done is create PSAs of the different government services that the city provides. This allows the students to do some research and learn how much local government is involved in day to day activities. They can create a video, a brochure, a poster or anything else that they would like.

Not my class or school, but this is what I was thinking about when I replied earlier.