What Policies Do Young People Want? Let Them Tell You.
April 8, 2015
By Joelle Gamble
As another presidential campaign season heats up, and candidates scrambled to create messaging, structures, and even gimmicks and swag in an attempt to engage young people, I can’t help but think about why we do what we do here at Roosevelt.
Young people on college campuses are often asked to make phone calls, knock on doors, and campaign for existing agendas, but they’re rarely asked about their own policy ideas. Since 2004, we have been working to change that norm. At its core, the Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network seeks to defy the public’s expectations of young people in politics today.
Over the past 10 years, we have built an engaged, community-driven network of students who are committed to using policy to transform their cities and states now and build the foundation for a sustainable future. We believe that broader participation in the policy process will not only improve representation but produce more creative ideas with the potential for real impact.
In this year’s 10 ideas journals, we present some of most promising and innovative ideas from students in our network. With chapters on 120 campuses in 38 states, from Los Angeles, California, to Conway, Arkansas, to New York City, we have the potential to effect policy ideas that transcend the parameters of our current national debate. Our student authors push for practical, community-focused solutions, from using pavement to improve sanitation in Louisville, Kentucky, to creating community benefit agreements for publicly funded stadiums in Lansing, Michigan, to building workforce development programs for agricultural literacy in Athens, Georgia.
Policy matters most when we take it beyond the page and bring it to the communities and institutions that can turn it into reality. Many of the students in this year’s publication have committed to pressing for impact. They’re connecting with decision-makers in city halls and state capitols, armed with the power of their own ideas.
The next generation of innovative minds and passionate advocates is here, and it’s changing this country one idea at a time.