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Record-breaking youth involvement in CCL’s December lobby meetings

A screenshot of the CCL Silicon Valley North Chapter’s virtual lobby meeting with Rep. Anna Eshoo, with lots of smiling youth.

Record-breaking youth involvement in CCL’s December lobby meetings

By Jess Wilber

The voices of young people have been powerful and abundant in the recent years of the U.S. climate movement. From the foundation of the Sunrise Movement in 2017 to the filing of the constitutional climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States, youth-led organizations have been at the forefront of the fight for effective climate policy. At CCL, our volunteers are mostly over the age of 40, with youth under 25 only recently reaching 18% of our overall membership. For youth under 18, the percentage is even slimmer. But while these young students may still be few, they are taking more action than ever before. A silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the opportunity for youth voices to shine in our lobby meetings. In December, 112 students under the age of 18 participated in meetings with their members of Congress.

In the past, lodging and travel expenses have been significant barriers preventing youth attendance at CCL conferences and lobby days. Hotel rooms and plane tickets to D.C. are more expensive than most young people can afford on their own. While chapter fundraising, scholarships, and internship benefits have been effective for sending students in higher education and beyond to D.C., we haven’t been able to support every student interested in lobbying on Capitol Hill. To make matters worse, internships and school-based scholarships are inaccessible to students under the age of 18, who also have to worry about the cost of a parent or guardian attending the event alongside them. As such, the virtual format of our December lobby meetings allowed more youth involvement than ever before.

Targeted training leads to more participation

CCL’s Youth Action Team works to provide students under 18 with the skills and knowledge they need to become effective climate advocates. Co-leader Sharon Bagatell explained that one of her team’s goals for 2020 was to get more young people involved in lobby meetings. To achieve this, they offered a special Youth Lobby Day Training, which was attended by 35 of the under-18 lobbyists. After the training, they worked to match youth with their district lobby teams across the country. One high school student attending a boarding school in Delaware before the pandemic was even able to Zoom into a lobby meeting from his home in South Korea. Sharon said, “Everyone was so excited to have more young people involved in their meetings. It was hard work, but it paid off!”

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (CA-18), one of the original cosponsors of the Energy Innovation Act, has thoroughly enjoyed the increased youth involvement in her recent meetings with CCL. Karl Danz, the Liaison to her office since 2015, explained that over half the membership of his lobby team this year were high school students. Of the 19 volunteers present in his face-to-face December meeting with Rep. Eshoo, 10 of the participants were under 18.

One of these high school volunteers, Karishma Goswami, helped lead a Twitter Thunderclap in August. Through this social media campaign, people urged their members of Congress to protect younger generations by passing effective climate legislation, and the messages had an estimated reach of more than 60,000. Amazed by the powerful demonstration of youth voices, Rep. Eshoo chimed in with this supportive tweet:

Youth can connect with young congressional staff

According to demographic information collected by LegiStorm on the staffers employed by the 116th Congress, 55% of congressional staffers in the House and Senate were under the age of 30. That is why Bill Blancato, CCL State Coordinator for North Carolina and South Carolina, thought he might see positive results by engaging volunteers with a closer proximity in age to the staffer his teams were meeting with. Indeed, he found that including students under 18 helped lobby teams connect with congressional staffers on a much more personal level. In his meeting for SC-05, he noticed that Rep. Ralph Norman’s staff were immediately drawn to the young people in his team. After the students gave their introductions, they realized that they actually shared mutual friends with the aide they were meeting with!

“CCL benefits from diversity, since so many of us are older white people,” Bill noted. “Young people help us diversify our membership and provide a unique energy to lobby meetings and preparation.” He also reflected on how youth can influence conservative members of Congress specifically, a demographic that remains a target for CCL. “It is hard to discern a student’s political ideology based on their views on climate alone. Because these young people will be voting more and more, Republican offices needed to be reminded that there will be young conservatives building political will for climate action alongside their Democratic peers.”

This past December, I experienced first-hand how effectively youth voices can influence their members of Congress. In the OH-04 meeting with Rep. Jim Jordan’s staff, I led a team of six college students, one of whom was a young freshman at age 17. While we were joined by veteran lobbyists from the local Oberlin chapter, they took a backseat and let the students’ voices shine. During previous meetings with Rep. Jordan’s office, we had struggled to balance CCL volunteer and staff talking time. But this time, we had a balanced and dynamic conversation and were able to draw the young staffer out of his shell.

Let’s prioritize youth involvement post-pandemic

All of these success stories from young lobbyists were made possible by the low barriers to entry that accompanied the virtual lobby day format. Without concern for the costs of travel and lodging or the need for a guardian present, youth engagement in lobby meetings was at an all-time high. As we look towards a future where effective vaccines, masking, and social distancing allow lobbying on Capitol Hill to become a reality, we must keep in mind the difficulties that our young volunteers will once again face. Whether it be through local fundraising or the expansion of youth programs, we must remember how powerful and effective these young advocates are, and advocate on behalf of their inclusion in future lobby meetings.

Jess Wilber is a recent graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in Environmental Studies & East Asian Studies and founded the CCL Oberlin College Chapter. In addition to serving as the International Outreach Intern and Great Lakes Community Representative, she is a contributor to CCL’s Youth Blog Writing Team.