FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Virtual #Vote4OurFuture Campaign Launched on July 23rd
July 27, 2020 – The National Children’s Campaign (NCC) and Zero Hour joined together on July 23rd to launch #Vote4OurFuture, a virtual campaign aimed at galvanizing Americans to fight for our nation’s 74 million children. The festivities were held live from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm ET and featured youth activists, performers, elected officials, and many others. The event was live-streamed on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitch. You can view the livestream at vote4ourfuture.org/events. Follow-up virtual activities will happen later today and on Wednesday (see bottom of the press release for further details)
“For too long the voices of young people have been ignored in our political discourse,” said Kimberly Gutzler, NCC President and Co-Founder. “The #Vote4OurFuture campaign aims to rectify that problem by training young people to educate, register, and get out the vote this November for the issues that matter to them.”
This youth-led project includes grassroots political activism, community-led organizing, initiatives aimed at increasing voter turnout among first-time voters and young people, strategic partnerships, concerts, and more. #Vote4OurFuture also works to enfranchise youth who are too young to vote through a vote tripling initiative, which empowers community members to vote and fight on their behalf.
“Vote4OurFuture is a civic engagement and democracy project that works to educate youth in the Rust Belt on the importance of a just transition to a clean energy economy, and empowers youth to take action in their communities” said Madelaine Tew, Zero Hour Founder and Co-Executive Director on the livestream. “We’re coming together because of our shared mission on the environmental crisis of climate change. Our organizations believe that 2020 needs to be a year of change, especially with the crucial elections coming in November.”
One of the participants was 2020 Presidential candidate, environmental activist and philanthropist Tom Steyer who said, “The UN has told us we have 9 years to save the planet. Which means we absolutely can’t waste 4 of those years. So that makes this the election of our lifetime,”
Launch Participants:
- Jonah Gottlieb, Co-Founder/Executive Director, National Children’s Campaign
- Madelaine Tew, Zero Hour Founder, Co-Executive Director, and Director of Finance
- Tom Steyer, philanthropist and former 2020 Presidential Candidate
- Leandra Mira, National Children’s Campaign, Pittsburgh
- Nick Anglin, Black, Young, and Educated, Pittsburgh
- Benjamin Gutschow, Casa San Jose, Pittsburgh
- Ava Stahl, National Children’s Campaign, Pittsburgh
- Aastha Singh, Next Gen PGH, Pittsburgh
- Turtle Park, Pittsburg-based band
- Roxie Richner, Youth Organizer, Ann Arbor
- Khadija Khokhar, Zero Hour, Detroit
- Brooke Solomon, Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan
- Zanagee Artis, Co-founder and Advocacy Director Zero Hour
- Jamie Margolin, Co-founder & Surrogates Director Zero Hour
- Andrea Manning, Deputy Director of Music, Zero Hour
- Lais Santoro, Zero Hour, Philadelphia
- Ed Brown, Sunrise Movement, Philadelphia
- Michelle Marti, Willow Grove Hub Lead, Youth Climate Action Team
- Antonique Smith, Grammy Nominated Singer, Actress, and Artivist
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
- Pittsburg Roundtable: Monday, July 27, 5pm EST, RSVP here
- Getting to the Roots of the Green New Deal Detroit: Wednesday, July 29, 5pm EST, RSVP here
More confirmed events will be announced on social media and at vote4ourfuture.org.
Promotion:
In any social media posts and/or articles, please be sure to tag @theNCC and @ThisIsZeroHour on Twitter and @NationalChildrensCampaign and @ThisIsZeroHour on Instagram. Viewers can be directed to vote4ourfuture.org/events to view the stream.
Contact:
Jonah Gottlieb – Co-Founder/Executive Director, National Children’s Campaign
jonah@nationalchildrenscampaign.org – (707) 790-7169
Kimberly Gutzler – Co-Founder/President, National Children’s Campaign
kimberly@nationalchildrenscampaign.org – (202) 476-9141
Ivy Jaguzny – Press Lead, Zero Hour
ivy@thisiszerohour.org – (206) 698-0441
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The National Children’s Campaign (NCC) is a national nonprofit organization that serves to amplify the voices of America’s 74 million children and youth and make sure that our nation’s political leaders prioritize the issues that matter to those who are too young to vote. The National Children’s Campaign focuses on health, education, climate and environment, child welfare, gun violence, child immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, youth civic engagement, and more.
Zero Hour is an international youth climate justice movement that organizes mobilizations, educational campaigns, lobby days, summits, strikes, marches, and media and social media campaigns to demand urgent action on climate change. Zero Hour fights for intersectional solutions to the climate crisis and focuses on addressing the root systems of oppression, like colonialism, that caused the climate crisis in the first place.
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