Max Lubin, the CEO of Rise and a former Department of Education staffer under President Obama, echoed that sentiment. “This administration has done a great job of building a staff that has real, lived experience with the policy problems they’re confronting. But working at the White House is still a long ways away from being a student in college right now who is crushed by student loan debt. That’s why it was so important for us to bring students and young people who are facing those challenges into those conversations.”
Concretely, leaders with YouthInGov are asking the Biden-Harris administration for an official seat at the decision-making table.
Eve Levenson, cofounder and lead organizer of the YouthInGov coalition, said listening sessions with the White House often feel reactive rather than proactive.
“It’s really an opportunity for the administration to sort of highlight things that they want to for youth allies and partners and stakeholders, to alert us to things that they’re putting out, and for us to be able to flag things,” she said.
“Since it’s hosted by and happens with the Office of Public Engagement, it really is more based off of, I would say, opportunities for engagement on things that have already been done or feedback on it more so than it necessarily is the ability to give input to things before they happen, which I do think is a missing piece and why we are still pushing for the YouthInGov proposal,” Levenson, who was also at the Youth Communities in Action event last month, explained.
The YouthInGov proposal advocates for creating an Office of Young Americans within the Executive Office of the President, devoting a White House staffer within the Presidential Personnel Office to hiring young Americans, and building an “advisory council of young Americans” to engage with youth focused and youth-led organizations.
The coalition has made progress with their proposal by working with the Future Forum Congressional Caucus (47 young members of Congress). The massive annual government spending bill which passed at the end of last year included language in support of conducting a Federal Youth Inclusion Assessment and creating an Office of Young Americans, Levenson said, adding that the coalition’s success working with Future Forum Caucus is “proof of concept” for the proposal, as it shows what can be done when legislators and youth organizations work together as true partners.
Levenson told Teen Vogue that though the White House has done a good job of engaging young Americans via the roundtables and digital engagement, the outreach has at times felt siloed.
“When we view young people as only messengers or voters rather than strategists and policymakers, I think you lose an important perspective,” she said. “Good engagement digitally or making sure we’re aware of what the administration does is necessary but insufficient.”
“We can both be really thankful and acknowledge what this administration has done well and still continue to want to work with them to further the role of young Americans and make sure that the younger voices, which continue to turn out in record-breaking numbers, which have shaped the political climate, are going to be included in more meaningful ways going forward,” Levenson said.
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