In 2005, staff from three organizations – Young People For, The League of Young Voters Education Fund, and The Movement Strategy Center – came together to address the lack of cross-sector collaboration and coordination within the youth civic engagement field. Out of a shared analysis of the problem, came a vision for a solution: the Generational Alliance, a national collaborative network bridging organizations across sectors and issues to build a long-term, strategic and integrated youth civic engagement field.

The youth civic engagement field is currently fractured among at least four distinct sectors:

1) community-based youth organizing

2) campus organizing and leadership development

3) non-campus voter organizing

4) cultural/media organizing and advocacy

Because these sectors developed—and were funded—in isolation from one another without adequate opportunities for interaction or collaboration, young people are not being optimally served and their interest in civic engagement not properly expressed.

A true sea change in the role and profile of young people in American civic life is possible only if these sectors are empowered to provide more comprehensive support and networking opportunities to young people of different ages, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds and educational experiences, who choose to play active roles in civic and political life.

Young leaders must feel supported across these sectors and know how to navigate between the organizations working collectively to support their development as activists and leaders. To achieve this type of sustained, strategic coordination, we must build strong relationships between organizations and across sectors.

The Generational Alliance creates spaces and brings together youth organizations to build collaborative and strategic working relationships. These relationships and the projects that grow from them are critical to the development of our organizations, fields and movements.