Main content starts here, tab to start navigating

DC Youth Power Network

I was thrilled last month when a good friend sent me an email suggesting DC Youth Power Network (YPN) for October’s 1% donation. The organization is based around youth power and targets the at-risk population, which is perfectly in line with what our program is trying to promote.YPN, founded in February 2009, is a citywide, broad-based, nonpartisan youth-led power organization. YPN trains and develops young leaders between the ages of 14-24 in Washington, DC to identify community issues and take bold public action to effectively address them. YPN’s purpose is to train young leaders in the craft of organizing for results-oriented long-term power.

One of the most important things you can teach young people from all walks of life is leadership. YPN along with the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) are organizations that produce real results. In 2010 WIN and YPN undertook citywide organizing efforts to protect the $1 billion Vote Neighborhoods First investment funding during the FY 2011 DC budget process and challenged DC candidates for Mayor and Council to recommit to the WIN Vote Neighborhoods First Agenda during the 2010 Elections. Specifically, WIN and YPN:

• Organized a 900-person WIN/YPN DC Votes Jobs and Neighborhoods First Elections Accountability Action on July 26th where Mayoral candidates Adrian Fenty, Vincent Gray, DC Council Chair Candidates Kwame Brown and Vincent Orange pledged to implement WIN’s 2010 Elections Agenda.
• Distributed 35,000 WIN/YPN nonpartisan voter education brochures to potential DC voters and talked to them about WIN/YPN’s issues on and prior to Primary Election Day.
• 200 WIN and YPN leaders conducted nonpartisan voter outreach on the streets of all eight Wards during Election Day.
• Conducted early voting actions with 70 Latino residents—led by YPN’s youth leaders at Latin American Youth Center—and 90 Returning Citizens (aka “ex-offenders”) as a demonstration of the rising power of these constituencies.

When the youth are directly involved the politics that effect their future, you create leadership, confidence, and a better community. 

To learn more about WIN’s work, please visit their website: www.windc-iaf.org.