Youth // Current

Chris Brown Comes to the Bay Area

Chris Brown Comes to the Bay Area Okay so, with all the hype that's been going... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
2 hours ago
|
0 comments

SF Board of Supervisors Restores Due Process for Undocumented Youth

SF Board of Supervisors Restores Due Process for Undocumented Youth... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
22 hours ago
|
0 comments

Working to Get Back on My Feet

Working to Get Back on My Feet Video , Min Lee, Nov 20, 2009 Editor's Note:... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
3 days ago
|
0 comments

When Parents Yell

What happens to a young person's emotions when they get yelled at by parents? As some... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
5 days ago
|
0 comments

H1N1: Why I'm Willing To Get Vaccinated

H1N1: Why I'm Willing To Get Vaccinated... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
6 days ago
|
0 comments

My Community is My Downfall

One young woman tells her story of getting evicted from her home, searching for new... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
6 days ago
|
0 comments

Richmond Youth Take Health in Their Own Hands

http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=d6246678995c453f54e4e18307b49... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
6 days ago
|
0 comments

Run Tellman Run

A modern day "Forrest Gump" is running from one coast of America to the other in order... more

jdamonb
added this
11 days ago
|
0 comments

The Four M's of Millennial Politics

Pundits were quick to point out that the percentage of Millennial voters (those 29 and... more

sarahkatheryn
added this
14 days ago
|
0 comments

Equal Equity Project: Upgrading Our Schools

People are helping to fix our schools. www.YouthOutlook.org

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
14 days ago
|
0 comments

Roots and Branches Oakland

Roots and Branches is a youth-led community-building collective. We improve exposure... more

BASTA
added this
15 days ago
|
0 comments

Latin American Youth go Green at CILA 2009!

over 1200 youth gathered from all over Latin America for the International Conference... more

achanceforpeace
added this
16 days ago
|
3 comments

My Son Saved My Life

One young woman tells her story of getting kicked out of her house at 15-years-old,... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
added this
18 days ago
|
0 comments

Youth for Human Rights International #2

PepsiJuror
added this
19 days ago
|
0 comments

What Yesterday Says About Young Voters

Watching election returns last night proved to be a very interesting evening. What became consistent was the impact of the lack of outreach on the youth segment of the electorate and the diminished rate of enthusiasm.

In Virginia

“Only 1,973,868 of a total 4,955,755 voters participated in the gubernatorial race — “a miniscule number when you consider there were 3.7 million voters in the 2008 election,” said Isaac Wood, assistant communications director at the University Center for Politics… He added that generally one-third of Virginia voters in presidential elections choose not to participate in gubernatorial elections, and that, as such, yesterday’s voter turnout was even lower than usual.”

One difference this year than in 2008 was young voters had a candidate at the top of the ticket who actively sought their vote. This isn’t generally the standard in other elections, despite our efforts to teach candidates otherwise. Outreach is so important, asking young people for their vote is key, and peer to peer outreach is a must. All of these things happened nation wide in 2008, in large part because the Obama campaign placed a high importance on getting out the vote for young people.

Let’s also not forget the huge outreach done by non-party groups like HeadCount, Rock the Vote, and state youth groups around the country. I did receive a “Go Vote” email from HeadCount yesterday but didn’t receive a text messages from Rock the Vote, and no facebook reminders from any groups. There just wasn’t the kind of work done this year that was done last year from national youth groups. (I did receive an email from Rock the Vote saying they did send texts out to target areas, no word on if those target areas were NJ and VA but not Maine or who they “targeted”).

This was echoed in a brilliantly articulated piece in the Washington Post

“It doesn’t seem to have been enough, and one immediate lesson from these off-off-year elections is already clear: Democrats have a lot of work to do to bring Obama loyalists to the polls, particularly the young. Early exit polls suggest that the share of the electorate represented by voters under 30 will be cut roughly in half compared to 2008. No one expects that young voters will be as excited by this year’s election (or by next year’s midterms) as they were by Obama’s own candidacy. But Democrats are more dependent on young voters than ever before – something I wrote about earlier this fall. Virginia should bring home to them the imperative of mobilizing the millennials with more than just a nice ad toward the end of a campaign.”

Read the rest here: http://www.futuremajority.com/node/9147Watching election returns last night proved to be a very interesting evening. What... more