Not sure where to start on your UU the Vote efforts? Looking for recommendations for organizations to partner with in your area?
Take a look at this list of organizations whose values and activities UUJMCA feels aligns with the values and activities of Unitarian Universalism. Each one has campaigns or initiatives we support, and encourage you to mobilize your community around for a statewide UUprising this November!
Are you working with a local or California-based organization that you’d like us to include on this list? Email us at votingrights@uujmca.org to let us know!
Generation Up
GenUp’s Mission
“GENup is a California based, statewide student-led social justice organization and student-activist coalition that strives to advocate for education through the power of youth voices!”
GenUp’s Initiatives
GenUp currently has four key initiatives at the core of their work. Click on the links below to learn more these specific efforts and how to connect with and support them!
- Leading the Statewide Schools & Communities First Youth Coalition
- Students Together Webinar Series
- California Student Board Member Association
- Californian Student Bill of Rights Campaign
GenUp’s Work
“We seek to do one thing and one thing only: to win for the students, by the students. GEN-Up utilizes strategic approaches to legislate for action and lobby for success. We use effective grass-roots organizing to facilitate communication networks among youth. Using the power and voice of students, we believe we can make change. It’s time we finally learn how to harness this power and achieve much needed educational advancements.
GEN-Up works closely with numerous activist organizations in its organizational coalition to create restorative justice in all facets of educational reform. Our goal is to bring all student-based stakeholders in the Californian community together into one large-body to utilize its centered power to advocate for educational issues and causes! We seek to build an expansive network of student-leaders, innovators, activists, and organizations that would work together to fight for a singular cause, in a united and powerful front. Through our expansive net-works and pooled student resources, we seek to mobilize the youth in all manners of educational activism; Whether that be aggressive social media advocacy, legislative lobbying, or field-work reaching to grassroot levels of canvassing and phone banking.”
Power California
Power California unites and mobilizes the power of youth of color and their families in California, with activities to promote voter engagement, provide leadership training, sustain movement building, and encourage long-lasting cultural shifts in California and the nation. Their mission is to “create a state that is equitable, inclusive, and just for everyone who calls California home.”
Ready to Vote: Expanding Voting Rights to 16
“Young people across the country are mobilizing, marching, and speaking out on critical issues as never before, from the Youth Climate Strike and March for Our Lives to immigrant rights and mass incarceration. They are taking action and advocating for solutions to the urgent issues of our time. It’s time they have a voice — and a vote. Power California is working with local partners throughout California to expand voting rights to 16 year olds and older.” –Power California
Visit Power California’s “Vote at 16” Initiative Site to learn more about the reasons and momentum behind this essential effort to lift up the power of youth voices in our democratic process.
Connect with “Vote at 16” Organizers
Vote at 16 Los Angeles – on April 23rd student leaders from Los Angeles Unified School District will be in support of an exploratory resolution to look at allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Los Angeles. For more information on how to get involved in LA efforts contact roque@powercalifornia.org
Vote at 16 statewide coalition -Young people across California are leading Vote at 16 movements in their respective communities. Power California brings young people to cross-share and strategize around the vote at 16 movement. For more information contact alicia@powercalifornia.org
Schools & Communities First
Schools and Communities First is a coalition of grassroots organizations working reclaim $12 billion every year to CA’s schools & local communities by closing the commercial property tax loophole. This ballot measure, which would amend the 1978 Proposition 13, would require commercial and industrial properties to be taxed based on market value and dedicates revenue to increased educational and local services (community colleges, public schools, etc.).
Schools and Communities First Fact Sheet
Visit the Schools and Communities First website to learn more about this initiative and coalition, volunteer to get signatures to get the revised measure language on the November 2020 ballot, and to find other ways to support their efforts if you can’t physically organize with them.
Youth Voter Movement
The Youth Voter Movement (YVM) is a nonpartisan effort to ensure youth have a voice in the future of this country by making sure they register to vote and then vote. YVM hosts student-led registration drives at high schools, colleges, and other venues registering and pre-registering students (starting at age 16 in some states) to vote. YVM also helps with “Get Out the Vote” efforts to ensure that young adults are not only registered to vote, but that they are showing up on Election Day to cast their ballot.
With over 80 student organizers and 220 adult volunteers, Youth Voter Movement has helped nearly 6,000 youth in California exercise their right to register/pre-register to vote.
Visit the YVM website to find resources for both youth organizers and adult allies, upcoming registration/educational events in your area, and to be part of the movement to lift up youth voices!
UU the Vote Webinar with Youth Voter Movement
Sunday, March 29, 2:00-3:30pm Pacific
Save the date for this spotlight UU the Vote webinar featuring Youth Voter Movement’s founder Julie Dunkle, YVM youth organizers Elaine Yan & Alvin Lee, and members of the Mission Peak UU Church in Fremont, CA who have partnered with YVM in their UU the Vote efforts. Learn how you can bring/adapt their partnership model to your community. Registration information will be posted by March 20.
