One Million Voters to Reconnect One Million Youth?

Reconnecting one million more youth --  that’s the idea being batted around the Opportunity Youth Network as the big idea that can help us mobilize multiple stakeholders to address our youth unemployment and under-educated crisis.  The goal is compelling...the challenge is how to do it.

OYN is being developed at the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions as a mobilizing arm to complement the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund investments in local partnerships to re-connect youth.  We all learned our lesson from the Youth Opportunity grants -- shorter-term, soft investments don’t’ turn into long -term policies or infrastructure without a way to mobilize the necessary public will and partnerships.  We aren’t going to solve the eduployment crisis with well-developed partnerships in 20 cities. We need an updated policy infrastructure, meaningful employer participation, and adequate service delivery to address the crisis.  We need to build off of the Opportunity Youth sites as the base for a national mobilization.

Let’s start with mobilizing our two most natural allies. First, we have relationships with young people.  They can be part of any mobilization. However, my guess is if we create opportunities, they will also show us new ways to mobilize.

I’ve heard people say that we have to be cautious about mobilizing young people especially in terms of any direct action. What I hear when people say that is that we are afraid of having lots of black and brown young people gathered together expressing their anger and frustration at not having the opportunity to complete high school or earn some money.  However, it can be done. Youth Connection Charter School registered 1,000 new voters as part of their advocacy effort with Chicago Public School. 1,000 new voters!  By bringing people young together under the specific purpose of registering voters, we demonstrate their positive contribution, while clearly hinting at the political power that they hold in demanding that policies and resources be directed to addressing the crisis.

Why can’t we start a voter registration drive that visually demonstrates that young people who have been marginalized are stepping up and are going to use their power in the voting booth on behalf of themselves and other youth? Let’s forge partnerships with folks who know how to do voter registration so that we can tap into their expertise. We’ll get the job done right and we will learn along the way.

Our other natural allies are employers.  They came forward during the school-to-work days, and they’ll come forward again because they know that this crisis is going to impact them in terms of a customer base and as future employees.  They can demonstrate their commitment by creating work experiences for young people as well as establishing the essential role of youth intermediaries and programs. Check out Opportunity Nation’s Employer Toolkit.

In order for us to mobilize, we need to be honest about our strengths and weaknesses as a field.  We need to figure out what we don’t know and don’t have and find partners who will help us fill those gaps.  The youth eduployment field can benefit tremendously from learning about how juvenile justice and foster care advocates are re-shaping the policy landscape. And we all have a lot to learn about how to use social media effectively to build influence outside of our own sphere.