Hey Y.A.L.L., let’s save democracy

College students today have grown up through a recession, a pandemic, and an unprecedented era of digitalization and political upheaval. They are also now part of the largest voting bloc in the country, composed of Millennial and Gen Z voters.  

Young people have tremendous electoral power, but are often unequipped to engage in our democratic processes. In an era awash in information (and disinformation), how can young people channel their energy around justice into actionable change?  

That’s where NETWORK’s new Young Advocates Leadership Lab (Y.A.L.L.) comes in.  

This week on the Just Politics podcast, our hosts are joined by Chelsea Puckett, NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Outreach and Education Specialist. Chelsea is leading the inaugural year of Y.A.L.L., working to equip college students with the tools they need to be multi-issue voters, to energize and register their classmates to vote, and to speak about the issues they care about.   

One of those students in the inaugural cohort, Baylee Fingerhut, joins us this week as well. A student at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Fingerhut became committed to advocating for a more equitable health care system after her father’s cancer diagnosis and will vote in a presidential election for the first time this year. About young voters like herself, she says, “I think we're all we're sparked up, we're fired up... we finally want to use our voices and use our ability to vote to uphold the things that we see are important.”  

Check out episode four of Just Politics to learn more about what college students are doing to build momentum for multi-issue voting ahead of the 2024 election (spoiler alert: it involves goats).  

Additional resources:  

Learn more about NETWORK’s Young Advocates Leadership Lab (Y.A.L.L.): https://networkadvocates.org/yall/   

NETWORK’s statement on the first presidential debate: https://networklobby.org/news/62824-debate/ 

Tufts report on voting rates among Gen Z: https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/gen-z-voted-higher-rate-2022-previous-generations-their-first-midterm-election