Member Spotlight: Alliance for Youth Action

What is your organization’s issue focus?

The Alliance for Youth Action is a nationwide network of youth-led organizations building political power for young people through civic engagement, advocacy, and leadership development.

What is something your organization is currently prioritizing? Can you tell our readers a little about the goals of the campaign/project?

One of our key campaigns is Democracy Done Right. We believe that when more people participate in our democracy, the better it works. This campaign strives to increase voting access from registration to the ballot box by pushing pro-voter reforms like automatic voter registration and early voting. Our network organizations also fight against voter suppression efforts.

Do you have an “Advocacy Tip” to share or “Lesson Learned” while organizing this or other campaigns? Do you have any general words of wisdom that you’d like to share with other staff engaged in advocacy? Speak peer to peer in this response.

Listen to youth-led and locally-focused organizations and learn from their experience. They understand their community needs more than any national organization. We prioritize learning and uplifting the local efforts, campaigns, learnings, and wins from our network to better inform our work and other national partners.

Many of our member organizations work with both our Bolder Advocacy initiative and our Justice program. How has either or both most helped you? How have you worked with either or both?

Bolder Advocacy has hosted several trainings for our 20-organization network on compliance and how to navigate communications and organizing work during election season.

Who inspires you? This can be an inspiration to you personally or an organizational inspiration.

I am personally inspired by the innovation of the youth organizers in our network. From passing the first voter registration law to creating the nation’s first polling place in a county jail, our network is reimagining our democracy every day. They are not just protecting the right to vote, they are leading the most creative and innovative policies to ensure more people can have their voices heard.

All spotlights are written by AFJ members directly. Please reach out to membership@afj.org if you’d like to complete a member spotlight.