2020 programs
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed our work to be online and on the phones, but we didn’t let that stop our organizing. Together with our sister organization, Seed the Vote, we engaged 1 million voters remotely through phone and text banking, connecting the issues that impact communities on the ground in swing states to our shared goal of stopping another devastating Trump term.
Summer Internship & Fellowship
In the summer of 2020, interns and fellows started calling and texting Florida and Pennsylvania to move more voters to defeat Trump. To do this, program participants engaged in deep political education on topics including disability justice, trans and queer liberation, organizing for migrant, tenant, and worker justice, transformative justice, and liberation. Fellows and interns were trained and practiced skills in phone banking, outreach, grassroots fundraising, movement resiliency, deep canvassing, and one-on-one organizing.
Fall Organizing Fellowship
The Summer and Fall Organizing Fellowships were remote programs combining online training and political education with direct experience in reaching voters remotely, including phone banking, texting, and relational organizing. Fellows organized and recruited volunteers to engage thousands of people who have been pushed to the margins of our democracy to reclaim our stake in the political process and our collective future.
Our Fall Organizing Fellowship was a 20 hour a week (remote) opportunity for young people impacted by racism and white supremacy to work in key swing states while building the skills and analysis for long-term social justice organizing. Our fall program included weekly political education, organizing skills building, and spaces for care and connection to keep our young organizers in the movement for the long term. This cohort of 70 paid and volunteer Fall Organizing Fellows started in September and worked through the November election, getting trained in and practicing peer-to-peer organizing, with each pair of fellows organizing a pod of 12-20 volunteers to make calls and send texts.
That’s over 500 volunteers mobilized and supported to defeat Trump through these pods, and over 20 fieldwork sessions each week for our partner orgs, totaling over 4000 individual fieldwork calling shifts!
2022 Program
In 2022, GenRising went big in the federal midterm elections to forge a future that young people of color deserve and protect the hard-fought wins of the generations before. We partnered with five grassroots organizations in three states: PA Stands Up, PA United, and Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance in Pennsylvania; Durham For All in North Carolina; and Asian-American Advocacy Fund PAC in Georgia. Fellows were recruited by partner organizations and already lived in the local communities where these groups based their work. Priority was given to Black, indigenous, women/femmes, LGBTQ, undocumented, first-generation, immigrant, low-income/working-class youth, as well as those who already had a connection to their organization and home state.
Summer and Fall Fellowship
Fellows met from July to November, 6-8 hours a week with their GenRising cohort, and dedicated the remaining 20 hours to their host organization. With GenRising staff, fellows trained in everything from hard organizing skills like base building to political education such as grappling with racial capitalism. With their host organizations, fellows put their study into practice: helping with building teams, developing trainings, supporting volunteers, and having conversations with voters on the phones and at the doors.
HIGHLIGHTS
I feel empowered to demand change, and I wouldn’t feel this way if it weren’t for the incredible generation rising team and community. Through my experience I have gained so many powerful tools to help uplift my community.
Generation Rising was a life changing experience that sparked my passion for organizing! I created bonds with comrades that will last long into the future and learned the importance of collective power.
GenRising has made me more politically aware of my state. I left the space understanding more about people than I’ve ever had before.
I really appreciate Generation Rising because it was a space for us BIPOC [people who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color] to really step into our individual and collective power through sharing and deepening our political knowledge. I am beyond grateful to have met everyone in the Summer 2020 cohort because I learned how to struggle, grow, and thrive together.
Generation Rising has been a super safe space for me. I always feel super validated and comforted every time I meet with the staff/ fellows/ interns/ volunteers.
Generation Rising taught me the importance of being radically imaginative and showed me that it’s okay to not always have the answers.
Generation Rising has been transformative for me this summer because it was given me the tools to see a clearer vision of what I know and hope my community to be. I now have the resources to build up my community and be resistant in the wake of complacency. Through this fellowship, I can better serve not only those around me, but also myself.
GR is a such a unique space. It is one of the only spaces I have been accepted into where I am surrounded by young activists of color who understand where I am coming from. It feels powerful to be in a group advocating for our own liberation.
Generation Rising has provided me with the skills and confidence needed to mobilize voters and organize in my own community! The amazing people I’ve met through this fellowship inspires me to be authentic to myself and keep fighting for our collective liberation.
Generation Rising has been an incredible space to learn, as someone who is new to organizing I was a little nervous getting into the work, but everyone has always been so welcoming as much as they have been passionate and informative. Definitely an inspiring environment!