Youth-voting group looks off campus, GenerationEngage promotes civic and political participation
By Pamela Stallsmith
December 25, 2006
It's all about engaging those who aren't.
GenerationEngage promotes civic involvement and targets young voters outside the traditional, four-year college experience. The nonpartisan group, based in Washington, has active chapters in Virginia, New York and North Carolina.
"We seek to address that youth voting gap in maybe some ways that aren't as conventional as what a lot of folks in the civic-participation field usually use," said Corey Mull, the Richmond outreach coordinator.
The national group was started after the 2004 presidential election by organizers distressed at the low turnout of young voters.
Devin and Adrian Talbott, sons of Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution think tank, and Justin Rockefeller, son of U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., founded the group and hold top positions.
The Richmond chapter started in 2005 and counts about 2,500 people who are either on the mailing list or have attended events. There's also a Northern Virginia affiliate.
"We're a sustained effort, which means that we don't operate on election cycles," Mull said. "We work just as hard in November or January or June. We really, really feel that democratic participation should be sustained."
GenerationEngage promotes voter registration and works with community groups to involve young voters, particularly the nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds with no college experience.
"We work in the community with young people instead of relying on that campus-based effort," said Mull, a recent graduate of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland who also attended J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico County.
Nonpartisanship and political balance are key.
"We really think it's up to young people to make up their own minds," Mull said. "We're here to educate, not dictate."
An "ambassadors" meeting of volunteers takes place monthly in Richmond. GenerationEngage also has organized forums with politicians and candidates. In April it invited Alexis Herman, the first black secretary of labor, who served under President Bill Clinton, to speak.
The national group also sponsors events that chapters can participate in via iChat, a type of videoconferencing that allows participants in different locations to see and speak to each other. Past speakers have included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who addressed the group in November, as well as Clinton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The next big event will occur in January, with an iChat event before the State of the Union -- former presidential speechwriters Peggy Noonan and Ted Sorensen will participate. Mull hopes the Richmond location will attract at least 75 people.
State Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III, D-Richmond, praised the group for trying to get young voters involved in politics.
"They don't look at affiliations -- they just look at trying to get people involved," said Lambert, who has spoken to the group, which has met in a café owned by his sons, the Hyperlink. "They do a lot of good."
