Organization: Young Invincibles
Website Address: http://younginvincibles.org/
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Brief description of Organization:
Young Invincibles was founded in 2009, because young people’s voices weren’t being heard in the health care reform debate. We are a national organization, representing the interests of 18 to 34 year-olds and making sure that our perspective is heard wherever decisions about our collective future are being made. We do this through conducting cutting-edge policy analysis, sharing the stories of millennials, and educating, informing, and mobilizing our generation to change the status quo.
What are some recent accomplishments or projects your Organization is working on?
Young Invincibles has achieved victories on issues like health care, Pell grants, and youth entrepreneurship, and has reached thousands of young adults through education campaigns around health insurance and identifying education and career paths in their state. We pursue our mission through policy analysis like our “State of Young America” report and sharing the stories and voices of young Americans. We mobilize diverse students and young adults from around the country on a number of economic issues and policy. During our National Youth Bus Tour in 2012, our staff organized over 100 youth roundtables in 43 cities around the country, talking to students from dozens of 4-year university and community college campuses about financial aid, student loans, and college completion. YI has developed a network of 25 local youth advisory committees, comprised of student leaders, in 23 states that provide feedback on policy and are a powerful organizing resource.
Tell us how both your Organization and convention attendees would benefit from your Hall booth?
Young Invincibles has been a fan of Netroots Nation for a long time and is extremely excited about the possibility to bring the message and work of Young Invincibles to the Netroots community. YI is working on a number of innovative campaigns around higher education, jobs, and health care.
At our booth, we will display our California and National versions of our Health Care Finder mobile app that is all about getting young adults informed and insured. This app recently won the grand prize at the LASVP Fast Pitch Social Innovation competition and we would love for all attendees to learn about the app, download it, and spread it to their networks as we embark on our campaign to get all young adults across America the affordable health insurance they deserve. Our booth will be an interactive experience where individuals can download our app, play the game, and learn about coverage in their neighborhood.
In addition to health care, we will also talk to participants about higher education and student debt. As Netroots participants come to our booth, we’ll walk them through debt calculations on our giant calculator so everyone can see the true cost of college. Rather than just showing people the numbers, we will talk through the tools that everyone can use to understand student debt and make smart financial decisions, with an aim of making college for all young adults affordable.
Finally, we will provide all participants with fact sheets about all of our issue areas, including health care, youth unemployment, and higher education. These fact sheets clearly lay out the state of young America, and we will engage individuals on ways to get involved. This engagement will include laptops and flip cams where people can share their video stories or directly join our social media conversation on how health care, higher education, and youth unemployment are impacting their lives. Many of these stories will be instantly shared on our social media platforms and will add to the dialogue and excitement of the conference.
YI will also use the Netroots’ buzz to pitch to local and national media about the stories we were able to collect at our booth. YI has shown the ability to get substantial national and local media attention. YI has been featured in the LA Times, NY Times, MSNBC, Fox News, and dozens of local media outlets. Our staff has worked closely with political and policy reporters, from the Wall Street Journal to Bloomberg to Inside Higher Ed, and we are frequently contacted for stories ranging from student debt to youth unemployment.
Give Young Invincibles your vote. Stop by our booth. Help us create change for young adults across the nation. Because together, we’re invincible.
