Washington, D.C. – From policymakers banning access to reproductive healthcare to passing laws that would create the conditions for racial profiling, mass arrests, and deportations, young people are increasingly aware of the ways our lives, freedoms and rights are being criminalized and attacked.
As the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country, United We Dream launched its Unafraid! civic engagement campaign to build and harness the collective power of young people of color who are fired up and ready to block rising assaults against our freedoms and build a future that cares for us all. United We Dream will engage thousands of young people through a series of nonpartisan workshops, trainings, and issue-based phone and text banking. The Unafraid! campaign will train immigrant youth on nonpartisan civic engagement knowledge and skills, and educate the public on key issues.
Michelle Ming, Political Director for United We Dream, said:
“As young people, we know we’re the leaders we’ve been waiting for. No matter how you square it, our generation is inheriting a deeply broken and increasingly unjust society where out-of-touch public officials are making catastrophic decisions about our futures and putting our lives in danger in the very places we call home. In the face of growing crises –from an unstable economy and police on college campuses using violence to quell our calls to end genocide, to a rise in mass shootings, growing man-made climate catastrophes, abortion bans, and anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ legislation– young people refuse to back down. Every day, we choose to show up in irrepressible, joyous, and caring solidarity with and for one another because we know that together, we are stronger than the attacks we’re up against this year and years to come.
With the launch of the Unafraid! campaign, Black, brown, immigrant, and queer young people aren’t sitting on the sidelines letting other people decide our futures. We know that some of the greatest victories we’ve had together have happened on-the-ground in the cities and states we call home. That’s why we’re taking bold, courageous steps to be the changemakers of this moment by energizing thousands of our peers and allies to fight. We’re ready and we’re unafraid! Unafraid to lead, to build, and to win for our communities!”
