Moving Beyond the Low-Hanging Fruit in Youth Organizing

Giraffes used to be only about 9 ft tall and looked like antelopes. Through time, only taller and taller giraffes survived since they were the only ones that could reach the food higher up in the trees. The species was able to evolve and survive because they were able to reach beyond the low-hanging food, while other species could not.

In youth organizing there is also low-hanging fruit: college students. Most organizations and campaigns have primarily focused their efforts on college students because they are the easiest to reach. However, if we are going to evolve as a movement we need to reach beyond just organizing college students and start working on those young voters that are harder to reach.

The youth I am talking about are those in rural communities, in high school, those that never went to college, and those that are no longer in college.

The reason that these young voters are often neglected in youth organizing is that it requires extra effort to reach them. An organization can just show up to a college campus and have young people all around them. To reach out to non-college youth you have to do your research and spend time going to the places that they tend to congregate. With finite resources, it's not something many organizations are willing to do.

On my other blog I wrote a post about reaching out to rural youth. I polled a number of my Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn contacts. The results showed that there were places and events that young people rural areas can be found. Going out to do peer-to-peer contact in those places is important, especially since rural youth tend to communicate more through text messaging than the internet.

In 1968 Bobby Kennedy won the Indiana Democratic Primary because he was willing to go to places and talk to voters that are used to being ignored. At a rally in Kentucky, a woman that described herself as a staunch Republican brought a Kennedy sign home because she was "surprised he would stop at a small town like this and give us his consideration."

Our efforts may actually be more transformational when we are talking to people that are used to being ignored and are impressed that a Democratic organization is willing to take the time to find and contact them. It is a fundamental human rule that everybody likes to feel that they are worthwhile. These efforts in rural communities could be very effective in creating life-long Democrats, yet we tend not to engage them.

If the youth movement is going to continue to grow and thrive, it must expand beyond the low-hanging fruit of colleges. While it may seem daunting at first, the benefits will certainly be worth it.

Photo by cesarastudillo
Kennedy examples from The Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke