33 Young Leaders Tapped to Boost NYC Youth Vote
06/04/2020
NYC Votes is selecting 33 young New Yorkers to serve as ambassadors for their campaign to increase participation in NYC elections among the city's youngest voters, and future voters. The ambassadors range in age from 14 to 24 and represent all five of the city's boroughs.
The We Power NYC Ambassadors will meet regularly to plan out actions, spread the word to their peers online, and help them get ready to vote in upcoming elections. Each ambassador will serve as a resource to their community and make sure their voices are heard on Election Day.
NYC Votes is proud to announce the inaugural class of We Power NYC Ambassadors, listed below by their home borough.
| Queens | Brooklyn | The Bronx | Manhattan | Staten Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cecilia Castellon | Helen Chen | Vladimira Asinor | Katerina Corr | Annmarie Gajdos |
| Marissa Cronin | Timothy Hunter | Mikayla DeLuca | Izzy Fell | Brooke Kraus |
| Meera Dasgupta | Zainab Jabeen | Leah DuFunis | Nah'sarah Fofana | Caris Lashley |
| Amira Ismail | Lauren Lee | James Lherisson | Talia Moine | Sara Shirazi |
| Joshua Lee | Ana LuoCai | Jennifer Martinez | Charlotte Ritz-Jack | |
| Mushfiq Milan | Lila Shulmister | Wali Ullah | ||
| Francesca Pierre | Maya Soudatt | |||
| Alexa Quitian | Jaylon Toussaint | |||
| Dawn Rafal | Iqra Waheed |
The ambassadors include 18 high school students and 15 who have graduated from high school. Of the college-age ambassadors, eight are current or former CUNY students. Reflecting the diversity of New York City, there are over seven languages spoken throughout the group. Many are second generation immigrants or naturalized citizens themselves. Learn more about the new ambassadors in their introductory blog post.
Three of the ambassadors are also youth poets involved with Urban Word NYC: Meera Dasgupta, James Lherisson, and Jennifer Martinez. Dasgupta is the 2019-2020 Youth Poet Laureate for New York City. She was recently selected as the youngest National Youth Poet Laureate to ever hold the title.
One of the ambassadors' first actions will be leading a virtual town hall on June 9th to address questions from their peers about safely participating in the June primary election. Moderating the town hall will be Timothy Hunter, a CUNY Graduate, University Student Senate Chair, and We Power NYC Ambassador.
"NYC Votes is already doing some remarkable work, as it pertains to voter awareness and civic engagement," said Hunter. "Being able to be a part of such a strong cohort of ambassadors is truly an honor. I am really looking forward to working with this group and NYC Votes to ensure that our already marginalized communities are not forgotten, and that their voices are heard at the polls in every election."
Others scheduled to speak include Dasgupta, NYC high school student and co-executive director of Coalition Z Charlotte Ritz-Jack, and CUNY graduate and voting rights activist Navjot Pal Kaur. Organizations partnering with NYC Votes for the town hall include Coalition Z, CUNY University Student Senate, CUNY Votes, Generation Citizen, Urban Word NYC, Young Invincibles, and Yvote.
The We Power NYC Ambassador Program comes as a result of NYC Votes's efforts to identify new ways to engage young New Yorkers and peak their interest in the democratic process. In September of 2019, NYC Votes set a goal of doubling youth participation in the 2021 mayoral election. After a public hearing seeking youth testimony in November 2019, and a youth voting summit in early 2020, NYC Votes started to set in motion their plans to recruit and train young people to register new voters in their communities and lead civics lessons for their peers. Then the coronavirus outbreak put these plans on hold.
"The work of young activists around the city was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Olivia Brady, the NYC Votes Youth Voter Coordinator who is organizing the We Power NYC Ambassador Program. "We knew we needed to create a program that uplifted the work young New Yorkers were already doing, while creating a space to safely build community in a time of social isolation."
Rather than engaging in traditional tactics like field organizing and registration drives, the We Power NYC Ambassadors are focusing their activity online. In addition to the town hall, the ambassadors made a coordinated social media push to inform their followers about the voter registration deadline for the June primary election. The ambassadors will receive training in digital organizing and leadership skills throughout the program, and will be organizing community building events like virtual open mics, trivia nights, and movie screenings.
We Power NYC is a youth-led campaign to mobilize one of New York City's most underrepresented voting populations – young people. Initiated by NYC Votes, this campaign will help New Yorkers in their teens and twenties use their voices, build power, and develop leadership skills. The We Power NYC Ambassadors will develop a community of young people who want to have a voice in their democracy and play a key role in doubling youth voter turnout in New York City.
Young voters in NYC turn out at levels comparable to other age cohorts for presidential elections and in high-profile elections like the 2018 midterms, according to the 2019-20 NYC Votes Voter Analysis Report. However, young New Yorkers participate at a particularly low rate in municipal elections. The We Power NYC campaign aims to double youth turnout for the 2021 citywide election by getting 250,000 voters ages 18 to 29 to the polls.
NYC Votes is the nonpartisan voter engagement initiative of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) and its Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC). In addition to promoting voter registration, participation, and civic engagement in New York City through its many programs and partnerships, NYC Votes sponsors the city’s official Debate Program and produces the citywide Voter Guide.