Vanishing coastlines, skyrocketing inflation, voter suppression and gun violence – these are the times of our lives.
But fear not.
For Gen Z, finding solutions to our toughest challenges is a top priority, as these issues have largely shaped their existence.
Whether it’s fear of mass shootings that prompt scanning the room to find the closest exit sign before finding a seat or hyper-awareness of the increasing global temperature, their experiences are informing their activism.
Not only are more than 70% of Gen Zers globally involved in a social or political cause, according to data from Edelman, but they are also starting and leading their own organizations focused on bettering the future.
Here are a few Gen Z groups Reckon thinks you should know about.
Gen Z has defied the narrative that young voters don’t show up at the polls during election season and groups like Youth Victory Fund, a newly launched virtual youth-led political action organization, are doing more than getting Gen Z out to vote; they are recruiting and training them to run for office.
Created by one of the youngest people to run for public office in Florida’s history at the age of 23, Elijah Manley now the CEO and founder of Youth Victory uses his political background as a guide for others. He ignites other Gen Zers to remember their power and take action, by leaning into his own resilience of growing up in extreme poverty and houselessness.
Manley and a team of other Gen Z organizers use Youth Victory Fund to invest in the future of young political leaders across five regions by supporting them with financial resources and political tools to win.
“We’re no longer accepting abuse and disrespect in either the workplace or in the economy. We want an economy that works for us,” Manley told Reckon.
Gen-Z for Change is the definition of meeting people where they are by using social media as a way to educate and engage other Gen Zers on what a progressive movement can and should look like.
Since its start in 2020, Gen-Z for Change has leaned into digital organizing by supporting progressive campaigns, sharing educational posts on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and more, and raising funds for causes like union solidarity and fighting abortion bans.
Through TikTok, Gen-Z for Change provides research and talking points for influencers like Dylan Troesken, a famous TikTok star and model to create educational videos for their followers around Gen-Z for Changes’ digital progressive movement.
“We want to be able to advocate and to push for the policies that Gen Z believes in,” Aidan Kohn-Murphy, Gen-Z for Change’s founder and executive director told Politico. “Not to be revolutionary, but there’s a lot wrong with the world, and if we can use our platform to make positive change and leave the world better than we found it, then we’ll have done our job.”
Stopping the climate crisis is a top priority for the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots organization working toward clean energy by uniting young people and holding elected leaders accountable. While the movement launched in 2017 with 15 high school and college campus chapters, they made their first big splash with a viral sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in 2018, demanding a “Green New Deal.”
Now the Sunrise Movement has more than 500 chapters across the country with thousands of volunteers. Their work with climate change-focused political leaders like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., created opportunities for the Sunrise Movement’s executive director, Varshini Prakash, to join a climate task force organized by Sanders and President Joe Biden. With their input, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate action in American history.
“We made politicians directly accountable for their stances on climate,” Aru Shiney-Ajay, Sunrise Movement strategic director told Slate. “The zeitgeist shift was happening, but the state of democracy in this country means that public opinion shift doesn’t always translate to political changes. We played a crucial role in catalyzing that.”
With more than 160 reported mass shootings and counting in 2023 and an increasing amount of gun violence, groups like March For Our Lives have been working to create safe and healthy communities and livelihoods where gun violence is obsolete.
The group was founded after the tragic 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when students started organizing to end the gun violence epidemic. Today, there are more than 300 March For Our Lives chapters across the country.
“I like to think that part of the change that March for Our Lives helped bring, from really the beginning when we started this work, was about making sure it’s not just about Parkland, it’s not just about Sandy Hook, or any community that goes through mass shootings,” David Hogg, co-founder of March for Our Lives told Vox in March.
“It’s about communities that go through all forms of gun violence, and not speaking for them, but making sure that people understand that they have always been in this conversation, and they have to be part of the conversation. It can’t just be about how we stop gun violence inside of schools.”
Generation Ratify, a nationwide advocacy group formed in 2019 and working to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, is leading the charge for the full equality of women and LGBTQ communities.
Because the Equal Rights Amendment along with the Constitution doesn’t protect gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation and identity, Generation Ratify’s executive director and co-founder Rosie Couture, a 19-year-old freshman at Harvard College, has made it a mission to confront elected officials and hold lobbying days with other Gen Zers. The group also works with allies of their mission, such as Democratic U.S. Rep. Cori Bush.
“Cori Bush is a community organizer at her core,” Couture told ELLE. “When we first started talking with her about the ERA, she was like, ‘This is a movement office. We’re here to help your movement and be your voice and your home on Capitol Hill.’ And that’s exactly what she’s been for us.”
The “ERA” movement, short for the Equal Rights Amendment is how Generation Ratify spreads its messages and now their efforts have reached more than 12,000 organizing bases across the country and counting.
