Please get involved; speak up for all the youth who've been given the right to remain silent. Stand up for the leaders of tomorrow.
Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to start the discussion in your community.
Write your Congressional Representative to let them know you support the Youth PROMISE Act!
Today, Tuesday April 21st , young people nationwide are calling their members of Congress and asking them to do what is right for our country.
We all voted because
we were passionate about issues that deeply affect us: like making sure that everyone
has access to health care, that education is accessible and affordable to all,
and investing in a new energy economy that will decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, while creating green jobs to lift people out of poverty in our communities.
This year's budget will decide how much money goes to the programs that support young people, students, and working families.
WE NEED YOU to make phone calls and get your
peers, family and friends to make calls as well.
Below is a sample
call in day script with the phone number to your member of Congress!
| HOW TO CALL: |
Dial (888) 299-1447 to be connected to your Members of Congress. |
| SENATOR SCRIPT: | Hello Senator ______. My name is ______. I am a young person and a voter in your state. I am calling you today in conjunction with the League of Young Voters Education Fund and young people across the country for the National Call-In Day to urge you to vote for Budget Reconciliation in the final version of the Federal Budget. I support the Budget with reconciliation so Congress can vote up or down on the proposed investments in health care, green jobs and higher education programs that are desperately needed by young people & working families. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your support. |
| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SCRIPT: |
|
If your Representative and/or Senator is already a
supporter,
ask her/him to urge their colleagues to be supporters as well.
Update 8:56am PST
Jeff Chang, the hip hop author, master of Can't Stop Won't Stop, dropped a new piece in The Nation today about Obama's arts and cultural policy. "Creativity has become the glue of social cohesion in times of turmoil."See the power of MOE-MENTUM's poetry in a new light.
MOE-MENTUM stopped in on Saturday at TBI and gave a jaw dropping performance of his poetry. He walked away from the street violence in Chi-Town because he wanted to make change in his community. Check him out on myspace .
It always works like this: the people who inspire us get their inspiration from someone else, and so on down the line, each one of us emboldened and empowered by the art, the beauty and truth of another leader's words. From our President at the top, to the 14-17 year old participants of TBI who stood up and hollered for MOE-MENTUM's truth, we're united by our power, helping our country into the future, hand in hand.
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Hey people!
stay tuned! |
Power Shift 2009 took place from Friday, February 27th through Monday, March 2nd at the D.C. Conference Center in the heart of downtown Washington.
We brought over 150 people to the conference, and we're going to feature their voices, thoughts, pictures, video, and testimonials right here.
To kick off our Power Shift coverage, we could think of no better leader than Marshall Ganz. Ganz was the only speaker scheduled last Friday, and one look at this interview, conducted by LYVEF's Heather Box, shows why.
It's easy to go online, see the advertising, the pictures, the colors of our modern pop culture; see the non profit movement as just one more outlet for young energy, no bigger or smaller than the rest.
But to do that is to devalue the sacrifice and commitment of the young organizers, the up and coming Marshall Ganz's who came to Power Shift to learn knowledge they can take back to all of us, to their families and friends and neighbors.
Our Civil Rights movement is a beautiful thing, because we, the young people of America, can unite around the most imminent threat to our existence: global warming and the destruction of our environment.
We do not have to question each other; no race, gender, orientation or occupation is excluded from our fight, because this is a fight for LIFE.
Our nation is a patchwork of different people and identities, and everyone needs representation. 99problems.org is designed to give a voice to all artists and activists.
We want to open up the conversation to every one in America. Old or young, rich or poor, we all have a stake in the future of this nation.
Check the site out and join the conversation.
A few Leaguers are lucky enough to be in D.C. this week for this incredible Inauguration. They'll be "twittering" updates from the front lines, so keep coming back for the latest news and views on this historic moment in the making. Your fearless correspondents include...
* Sam Patton, Tech Director
* Heather Box, Development Director
* Khari Mosley, Political & Field Director
Live from D.C.
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For 6 years, the League has built bridges between our country's least
represented communities and the political establishment. Although many
times it seemed we would never get to cross those bridges, we worked
tirelessly to nurture the young minds of America who were fed 8 years
of missed opportunities. Last week, I got a call from the Obama transition team's Youth Liaison to discuss the League's priorities in 2009. As we talked, I realized that the pressure has never been greater for all of us to embody the ideals we have espoused for so long. The community based change that is the pinnacle of League activism is now the only way we will reshape American politics. The Green Jobs and Juvenile Justice movements are central to our work, and the League stands at the forefront of American innovation because our constituents, the working class backbone of our nation, have tasted the fruits of activist labor. Every contact we made in 2008 is a person, and every person is an opportunity that we at the League are not
going to miss. In the new year we are going to be working hard to
ensure that 2009 is the year our constituents cross those bridges to a
better future.
-Biko
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The Campaign Against Violence, as LYVEF is locally known in Milwaukee, is one of the most respected and sophisticated electoral and community organizations around. With deep roots in the community and a committed long-term vision, CAV is laying the groundwork for long-term empowered community change.
Check out this powerful story about one of CAV's talented young canvassers, Valentino Gray, who uses the combination of his powerful personal experiences and his artistic talent to engage people into this important work.
Valentino came to the CAV via our close local partner Running Rebels, where he is the director of their music program.
You might have heard about some of the misinformation campaigns going on in Pennsylvania. It's ugly stuff, like fliers telling people that if they have outstanding parking tickets or child support payments, they could be arrested at the polls.
It's infuriating.
And we're not going to accept it! The League is preparing to launch a big election protection campaign to fight back. We're raising money to hire and deploy 120 poll monitors for election day to cover the most densely African American and youth-heavy precincts in Allegheny County.
Help us ensure every vote is counted on election day.
Donate on facebook: http://www.causes.com/donate
or
Donate online: http://www.youngvoter.org/donate/electionprotection
The Power Vote campaign is harnessing people power locally so that we can have clean power nationwide! Check out their comprehensive and informative new toolkit and find out how you can mobilize young voters in your area. You can even use the lessons learned to organize people for other issues as well.
So get involved! Sign the Power Vote pledge or you can download the organizing toolkit.
After losing your home and perhaps people you love, you'd think
you'd get some justice. But in the aftermath of Katrina, Black and
lower-income people have been pushed out and watched as their former
neighborhoods have been replaced by whiter and wealthier residents. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, there's finally a bill in
Congress that will give all Katrina survivors a fair chance to rebuild
their lives. Our friends at ColorofChange.org have setup a petition to
support the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. You can sign it here.
Shady politicians around the country are rushing to pass terrible legislation that would prevent honest people from voting.
They claim they want to prevent voter fraud and keep voter rolls
accurate. But we can see these laws for what they really are: an
attempt to disenfranchise voters by placing barriers every step of the
way.
We need to take a stand and demand that our elected officials respect everyone's fundamental right to vote!
We wanna thank you all!!!
Check out the full list of our heroic 2007 donors.
For people who live amongst toxic smells and poor air quality, it
may seem like that's just a part of living in a big city, right? Wrong.
These teens took evidence to their local
governments and fought for the right to breathe better air. So if you're tired of choking on smog, take it from these teens, and make your voice heard at City Hall!
The League's Tunnel Builder Institute held a training w/ young organizers in Tallahassee recently. Check it out a testimonial from attendee Szor-Danner Jones:
"TBI was a wonderful experience not only for myself, but for the entire Community Empowerment Organization and our guest. Our passions about informing voters of their options in the Tallahassee community have been re-ignited. With the information obtained from the training we have already strategically planned GOTV and social events to aid us in recruitment as well as selected are target areas and demographics for the upcoming election season.
I would recommend TBI to anyone who is serious about organizing and helping communities find their voice in the political arena. The sessions are informative, fun and are organized in a way that participants can easily adapt the information to what is going on in their area. TBI really put in perspective the goals of the new administration and helped me as an organizer, realize the impact myself and particularly the Community Empowerment Organization has on the areas we target.
Thank you for the experience!"
The League just made history in Maine.
Remember a couple months ago, when we told you that the League in Maine was working to get an initiative on the November ballot to get rid of debt for college students?
This week the state legislature voted overwhelmingly to pass the "Opportunity Maine" initiative as a bill. Now, students who stay in Maine after they graduate will be able to receive up to $32,000 towards their college debt.
Read the full story -- or -- visit the Opportunity Maine website
Let's own this movement!
When we found out last week that we had lost nearly a third of our budget in funding we were hit hard with a fact we already knew: we can’t depend on big funders to build our movement. If we are this movement, we need to own this movement.
So we're asking you to step up right now and get your friends involved. Can you ask your friends and family to throw down to make sure the League survives?
Hell yes.
As of early April, Milwaukee's Mayfair mall isn't letting young people in by themselves without government issued ids. They say they want the mall to be "family friendly" but the League's Milwaukee affiliate -- the Campaign Against Violence -- knows it's really just haterism.
"It's like adults don't get. We cruise because there is nothing to. We go to the mall because it's the last safe place for us to go," says 18 year-old Lanisha Colfax. "If people were really concerned about the violence, they would provide opportunities for us. But I really think adults don't want to listen to us."
Watch the video above from Fox News in Milwaukee. And click here to see Fox News cover the rally CAV organized on the day the the new id-check began.
