GenerationEngage + Mobilize.org
In 2010 Mobilize.org acquired GenerationEngage, a national organization that empowered community organizers around the country to work with young adults on the ground, encouraging them to become leaders in their communities and more active participants in our democracy.
Inspired by the important work of organizations focused on college campuses, but seeing that there were too few high-impact organizations targeting young people outside the boundaries of traditional four-year universities, Generation Engage was founded by two Millennials days after the 2004 election. The mission of the organization was to equip the more than half of eighteen- to thirty-year-olds who did not attend a four-year university, with the basic tools for civic engagement. Through the use of grassroots organization and technology, Generation Engage sought to reinvent how young people and civic leaders communicated in a few fundamental ways.
Generation Engage has contributed significantly to each community in which it has worked. First, the organization promoted civic involvement beyond the voting booth and at the local level, employing young leaders as full-time Community Directors to execute local initiatives independent of election cycles. Second, the organization utilized technology, such as online videoconferencing tools, to amplify the collective political voice of marginalized young people. In this way, Generation Engage connected disparate groups of members in communities across the country to lead interactive conversations with local, national and international leaders. Lastly, Generation Engage created a system of measurement that valued a young person’s participation beyond the voting booth. Each Generation Engage member completed a quarterly Engagement Survey, which measured demographic makeup, political interests and their general level of political participation.
Since its founding GenerationEngage, more than 5,000 young adults had planned, implemented and/or participated in programs and projects within the communities the organization served. Through the acquisition of Generation Engage, Mobilize.org gains a great deal of institutional knowledge from its staff, partnerships and programs. The experience and knowledge of the new Mobilize.org team, paired with the successful Democracy 2.0 work over the past three years, ensures that our planned activities in the field of community college organizing will be successful and contribute to the larger narrative of empowering the Millennial Generation.
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