Train and Mobilize Young Women as Policy Advocates

Political self-efficacy is the belief that you can both understand and influence political affairs. Absent a sense of political self-efficacy, it makes perfect sense for young people not to participate in our democracy. For young women, in particular, it’s critical that they understand how our government works and how it impacts their lives. Teaching young women to lead around personally relevant issues, so they see firsthand why and how to influence the political process, is the best way to accomplish that goal. It is IGNITE’s belief that when young women influence the legislative process we get better policy and they are simultaneously more apt to embrace political leadership. This project will train and mobilize 3000 young women in 20 states as policy advocates, whereby they support legislative solutions to personally relevant policy issues. Young women will learn effective advocacy techniques, identify personally relevant policy issues they want to address, and meet with legislators to advocate for solutions to advance those issues. Ultimately, we will pilot this effort in 20 states, then expand the work to engage 5,000 young women in all 50 states in advocacy efforts.

The primary impact this project will have is on civic engagement. Young women will ultimately understand how policy is made and what role individuals can play in creating laws. Young women will develop their policy solutions around the underlying issues in their community, which will make them stronger advocates for the changes they want to see. Second, the project will impact the types of legislation that is passed and the impact of that legislation on women and young people. In order to keep the policy agenda non-partisan, IGNITE has identified three policy priorities that directly impact women and young people: women’s rights (ie: policies to promote wage equality), voting rights (ie: policies to simplify voting), and civic engagement (ie: policies to promote access to civics classes in schools). Because our young women will identify the policies they want to champion within these areas, the policies and the advocacy work to pass laws will be driven by community stakeholders. Last, teaching young women how to effectively advocate for policies that directly impact their lives is an imperative part of training these same young women to run for office.

Vision

Deploy Young Women to Lead Policy Change

Government makes policies that impact young women, yet women only make up 22% of all legislative bodies. This work will train and mobilize young women to champion policies that directly impact their lives. In doing so, young women will become permanently engaged in the democratic process and be prepared to serve in office. The policies they advance will live on to benefit their communities.

IGNITE

Train and Mobilize Young Women as Policy Advocates

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Sara Guillermo

Aileen Zhong