Bigger, bolder and more ready to pump up the voices of young people than ever.
We have spent the better part of a decade making moves behind the scenes.
Pushing the envelope on voting rights. Changing the balance of power in our communities. Transforming the face of leadership across our states. A select few knew of us, and called us “the Bus Federation” after the buses we’d drive around to organize people. (Get it?)
Many many more people knew the names, and celebrated the work, of the local organizations that made up our federation. We have proudly worked backstage, amplifying and supporting and investing in local works in targeted corners of the country.
But today America faces unprecedented challenges.
We need to do unprecedented work – bigger, broader, more ambitious. We need to shine a beacon, so any group of young people organizing for progressive change anywhere in the country knows that somebody has their back with resources and support.
That somebody is the Alliance for Youth Action. That’s us.
We’ve been preparing for this a long time. Our network has brought automatic voter registration to America. We’ve defeated huge corporations to fight climate change after being outspent 11-to-1. We’ve helped win the country’s first $15 minimum wage. We helped ensure protections for LGBTQ people in some of the nation’s most conservative places. We have wrung police accountability measures from entrenched city governments. We founded National Voter Registration Day and the American Voter Guide. We have helped over 350,000 young people register to vote.
With this experience, we are ready to take it fully national.
The fundamentals of our mission haven’t changed – we’re still building a locally led movement of young people, by young people, for all people. We believe our historically huge and diverse Millennial generation holds the power to transform American democracy. We’re now going to do more to release that potential.
In 2017-18, our network will grow affiliates and youth organizing partnerships in 25 states, to mobilize masses of young people in every competitive statewide election. We will create a national tide for automatic voter registration, vote-your-way reforms, and voting rights for the formerly incarcerated with our Democracy Done Right campaign. We will shift the national economic conversation toward one where working people have power and profit in their jobs, housing, and educations through our Broke AF campaign. We will train hundreds of leaders, and register hundreds of thousands of voters.
An effort this big needs a new name, and a new identity. It needs to be big, and loud – so local youth organizing can finally get the attention it deserves (and so local youth organizers know where to turn for help).
Thus, the Alliance for Youth Action is born. We can’t wait to grow with you.
P.S.
Check out the rest of our spiffy new website. Find out about our affiliates & partners. And if you’re feeling really inspired, throw us a few bucks to fund the huge work ahead of us.