On January 12th, 2010, a terrible earthquake hit the island of Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Seven-year-old me saw the photos of tumbled buildings and crying children all over the internet, and my very first thought was that I needed to help. Seeing children just like me suddenly orphaned and alone, mothers frantically searching for their babies, and wreckage all over the streets really touched me. I ran to my room, dumped out my blue plastic piggy bank, and gave my savings—$3.08—to my mom to give to help Haiti. That was the start of my career in social activism. 

Even though I was a quiet kid who hid behind my parents when strangers approached, I decided to start selling my artwork and photography at the local farmers market to raise funds to support health, food, and education programs in Haiti. To date, I’ve raised over $16,000, visited and volunteered at a new school in Port-au-Prince, and given numerous presentations about the work that I do and what others can do to make a difference in the world.

Last year, however, I began to feel a little burned out from fundraising. I really wanted to do something hands-on that would have a more direct impact on the students I support.

That’s where YEA Camp came in. When I applied, I was apprehensive and not sure it would be worth it.

However, within the first hour of camp, I met lifelong friends and already felt like a part of a whole. During the week I spent at the Massachusetts YEA Camp, I became more and more confident in myself and my cause, and started feeling empowered–like I actually could change the world.

At camp, I learned important lessons about social activism and felt encouraged not give up on my work for Haiti. It is because of YEA Camp that I have created new ways to make a difference beyond raising funds. It has also helped me stay passionate and focused during these rough political times.

My latest project is called Reach for the Sun. When I visited the school I support in Haiti last April, I realized the urgent need for sources of renewable energy. While they have power at the school, it is intermittent and constantly goes on and off, which is very distracting during the school day. This energy problem has been in the back of my mind since my visit, but I felt pretty helpless to do anything about it. After all, I am just a teenager from a small rural town in North Carolina. But YEA Camp inspired me to take action despite my fears and reservations.

So I developed a plan at my project-based high school to bring a solar-powered USB device charging station to the school in Haiti.  I am currently leading a team of students at my own school to learn about, design, install, and trouble-shoot a prototype station. This station will be useful for students and teachers to charge their cell phones and devices. I am raising funds to travel to Haiti next fall to help the Haitian students install another station at their school. It is my hope that the installation of this much needed resource will encourage students to consider other things they might do to improve their school and/or lives. I also want students at both schools to see that young people have the power to make a change in the world, and that it is imperative to reach out to one another across borders to make the world a more just and compassionate place.  Thank you, YEA Camp, for helping this idea come to life.To learn more about me and/or my cause, please visit the following links:

My Feature on the What If? Foundation Website

My Feature on the Partners In Health Website

Featured on WTVC NewsChannel 9

My YouTube Video on How to Be an Activist 

If you’re a teen like Erin who wants to make a difference on a cause you care about, check out YEA Camp this summer!

The post How YEA Camp Helped Me Help Haiti appeared first on YEA Camp.

From big things like interning on a campaign to small things like talking to your family, here are 10 ideas to do just that. We are proud to include several that teens from YEA Camp, our summer camp for social change, have been doing around the country.

1. Educate yourself on the candidates and the issues. 

A lot of the mainstream media discussion is more like describing a horse race — trying to predict who will win — versus a real discussion on what the candidates truly believe and what will be best for the voters. If you’re not already sure who you support, do your research. Go to the candidates’ web sites to research their platforms and listen to the debates.

What issues are important to you? Some of the topics candidates disagree on include what our taxes should pay for, the cost of education, the environment, minimum wage, gun control, abortion rights, racism – including police brutality and mass incarceration –  and more. Most candidates either strongly support or oppose the president.

Once you are well-informed and know who you support and why, you will boost your confidence and credibility. This will help make you a great advocate for the candidates and the issues that matter to you.

Fewer people pay attention to — and vote in — the midterm (non-presidential elections), so your efforts to get more people voting can make an even bigger impact.

A great resource for learning more about the political process in general and to connect with local groups is Indivisible.org.

Here’s 17-year-old YEA Camper Claire with her mom Lisa at a rally in Michigan

2. Talk to the 18-and-over folks in your life (family members, friends, neighbors) about the election.

Tell them why you support the candidate you do. If they are not politically active, you could ask them to vote for a certain candidate on your behalf. Or, if they support a different candidate, you could ask them why and see if you can change their mind by encouraging them to visit your candidate’s website or see them in person if they are speaking in your area.

Just your showing how important you see the election is likely to make them see it that way as well and to make time to vote. You can always offer them a deal, too, like you cook dinner that night so they have time to go vote! Key first is to make sure they are registered to vote.

Here’s 17-year-old YEA Camper Danielle with two friends at a rally in North Carolina.

3. Get your opinions out there for others to see. Beyond your close family members, you can influence hundreds or thousands of people by posting your opinions or persuasive articles you read on your social media. Even just posting a picture of yourself and your friends at a rally on your social media encourages those in your network to be aware of the election and to consider supporting your candidate. You could also write an article for your school newspaper or a blog, or make a video about why you support the candidate you do.

Photo of youth phone-banking courtesy of High School Democrats of America

4. Phone-bank, write, or text. This is one of the key things that all campaigns need help with: calling, writing, or texting potential voters to identify supporters and encourage them to actually go vote. This GOTV (“get out the vote”) effort is critical to the success of any campaign.

Check out this inspiring story of an 11-year-old phone-banking! He actually uses his age to his advantage — who’s going to be rude to an 11-year-old?

You can do this at a phone-banking party (making friends and making calls with other people who feel as strongly as you do), which you may be able to find out about on your candidate’s website, or you can even just make them from home on your own. This is huge, because you don’t need to get a ride anywhere or rely on someone else’s schedule.

Phone-banking is easy because you get a script of what to say, and you just follow that and be sure to mark the responses of the caller you speak to – if they are supporting your candidate, if they’ve already voted, or even if it’s a  wrong number. That information is critical to the campaign being able to follow up and ensure their supporters vote on Election Day, which makes the difference in a close race.

To get connected to a close race across the country and to help elect progressive candidates, go to Sister District or to MoveOn to find election events in your area. You can also write letters or postcards or send texts from home.

And of course, even when it is not election season, you can always contact your elected officials to urge them to vote a certain way. Sign up for 5 Calls for notifications, scripts, and numbers so you can easily make 5 calls a day on causes that have a huge impact on our country.

Signs from voter registration drive at YEA Camper Ana’s school

5. Help get people registered to vote and help get them to the polls.

Just as important as persuading people to support one candidate or another is getting people to register to vote and making sure that they actually vote, either on Election Day or by mailing in an absentee ballot.

There are lots of ways to do this, from informally by talking to people in your community to volunteering at campaign events.

Most seniors at your high school will be old enough to vote in November’s election, but many are not registered to vote and don’t know how to vote (where to go, what to do).

Sixteen-year-old Ana Little-Sana, former YEA Camper and the former president of the California High School Democrats of America, held a successful voter registration drive at her high school in San Diego along with a photo booth where people could pose with signs to show their political passions. Over 10% of the student body registered to vote that day!

In fact, there are also efforts in different states to lower the voting age to 16 in California and to enable 17-year-olds turning 18 by November to vote in Ohio. Research if this is happening in your state and how you can support these efforts.

The more people vote and get engaged in the political process, the stronger democracy we have. You can get involvd with Rock The Vote here.

From our mock presidential debate we had at YEA Camp in 2016.

6. Ask your teachers to make class time for discussion about the candidates and what students can do. Some schools even have mock elections where students get to vote. Not only does this help students get thinking about this election cycle to potentially influence their families, it also starts them off young in getting politically engaged, which can lead to a lifetime of active participation.

7. Swag. Wear a t-shirt for your preferred candidate, put a bumper sticker on your notebook or the family car (they can take it off in November), and put a sign in your front yard or apartment window. When people see that others are supporting a certain candidate, it reminds them that an election is coming up and the importance of voting.

8. Intern or volunteer for a campaign.

If you’re really dedicated, this is an incredible way to devote yourself to getting a candidate elected. (It’s also great for your college applications.)

There are hundreds of Congressional and local races coming up in November that pose a fantastic opportunity to learn about the political process and have an even bigger impact on a race.

Fifteen-year-old YEA Camper Ananya Singh has been unhappy with her Congressional representative and so started interning on the campaign for his opponent to get him out of office. Ananya’s enthusiasm is inspiring. “Not being able to vote will never stop me from making an impact! This is a historical moment, so get engaged,” she wrote. Read about her experience here.

Another high-schooler, 15-year-old YEA Camper Jake Johnson interned for a Congressional race in ihs home state of Arizona. “On the campaign I reached out to and helped register voters to get as much turnout as possible and educate voters on what they were voting for,” Jake explained. “Working on a campaign was one of the best experiences that I’ve ever had and it taught me so much about what’s going on in the world, and what I can do to change the world.”

9. Fund-raise for a campaign or organization. Whether it’s a bake sale, a car wash, a yard sale, a lemonade stand, or any other creative idea you have, you can donate the money you raise to the campaign. Even easier than that: sign up for the email list of your favorite candidate and forward campaign emails on to adults who might donate.

All fundraising is also awareness-raising, so be prepared to explain why you support the candidate or cause you do.

Ask for campaign birthday and holiday presents — no matter the time of year! Ask the people in your life who normally give you presents for your birthday or the holidays to donate that money to the candidate of your choice instead.

To build long-lasting support, Movement Strategy Center supports grassroots organizations around the country, rather than donating to any individual candidate directly.

10. Use your personal skills and passions to help your candidate.

Maybe you’re great at graphic design or art and can create and share a fun image that will make people think. Maybe you love to make music and you want to write a song that will inspire people. Maybe you have a following on social media that you can influence, you can put your writing abilities to use in the school newspaper, or you can apply your cookie-making abilities at your bake sale. Or just be on the lookout for ways to get involved. We can each contribute in our own ways.

There is so much that all of us can do to make a difference in the world, no matter what our age. Voting is absolutely important if you are old enough, but that is just one vote. Doing any of the actions above means impacting a lot more people, and those votes all add up. These races are close, and we all have an opportunity to make an impact. So get to it! And let us know how it goes.

And if you or someone you know is 12-17 and passionate about social justice and making a difference in the world, join us at YEA Camp this summer! YEA Camp is a summer camp for social change, where each camper chooses their issue of importance (IOI) that they want to focus on and develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, and community to take their passions to the next level in bringing about the change we so badly need. And you’ll make incredible friends and have so much fun. See the details at YEACamp.org. We even have a camp for adults too!

The post 10 Ways Kids Too Young to Vote Can Get Involved in Politics appeared first on YEA Camp.