The Hot Sheet

Essay Contest for 16-24 year olds

Enter an essay contest for youth advocates co-sponsored by Advocates for
Youth, Feminist Majority Foundation, SIECUS, and the Sierra Club!

Win a trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in the fourth annual
“One Voice: Reproductive Health and Population” Summit

We invite advocates ages 16-24 to write an essay of no more than
500 words about the potential roles youth can play in advocating for a
more just and sustainable world, where all people have access to sexual
and reproductive health services and a healthy environment. Tell us how
you would use your experience from the One Voice Summit
to create a year-long action plan that will make a difference on these issues in your school and/or community.

CONTEST DEADLINE IS MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2008 at 5pm EST.

More »

Passion, but without anger

http://kdka.com/local/North.Fayette.School.2.861673.html

This story, while disturbing, shows very clearly what the League has
known all along: the youth of the United States, and of Pennsylvania,
are not apathetic about politics, as they are so often portrayed. What
they are is frustrated and angry, and they don’t know how to express
that constructively.

Luckily, that is why we are here, and it is because of stories like
this that we get out every day to teach young people that there is a
way that they can change their country peacefully but forcefully, with
passion but without anger, constructing new centers of power rather
than willy-nilly tearing down old ones.

It is all there in our tagline: engage, educate and empower for the
future of Pennsylvania.

Mac Booker

Everyone knows our Voter Guides rock

Ashley DiParlo at WTAE interviewed our own Carly Dobbins-Bucklad about the League of Young Voters special DIY voter guide website, theballot.org — where you can see all the League non-partisan voter guides (including PA’s!) with information on all of the down-ballot candidates and referendums, as well as upload your own voter guide.

People and organizations can submit guides all over the country, so if you’ve got a friend in another state, pass theballot.org on!

“Unlock the Vote” Poster Contest Winner announced!

The winning Unlock the Vote poster design by Janel Ganaway

(click on image for larger version)

Janel Ganaway, age 12, submitted the winning design for the PA League of Young Voters “Unlock the Vote” poster contest.

Pittsburgh student programs were asked to design a poster that said why it was important to vote. The winner was selected at the last PA League Presidential Debate Watch Party by those in attendance. Janel was part of the Mission Discovery student program at the Hill House.

Way to go, Janel! One thousand copies of your poster have been printed and distributed throughout the city in selected neighborhoods. The poster contest was part of the PA League’s ongoing Unlock the Vote program, which encourages inmate and ex-offender communities to know their rights, get registered, and vote.

Janel Ganaway, in front on the far right, with fellow Mission Discovery students and local hip-hop favorites, Wiz Khalifa (left) and Jasiri X (far right).

Training future organizers

Trick out the Vote!

Studies show that the most effective way to get young people to vote before an election is to knock on their doors and encourage them to. And what’s the one day when we’re all culturally ready for a knock on the door? Halloween! Just 5 days before the general Election.

This is a great, fun chance to do your part. Trick or Vote is a nationwide nonpartisan costume canvass taking place on Halloween.  So in Pittsburgh, on Oct 31st at 5pm,  costumed canvassers will meet up to get out the vote during Trick-Or-Treat!

Sign up you and your friends for Trick-or-Vote!

PA behind other states in anti-poverty legislation

With the number of U.S. children in poverty increasing, many states are forming commissions and task forces to reduce the ranks of the poor.

Pennsylvania is not among them.

Also, nearly two dozen states - including Delaware and New Jersey - have adopted state income-tax credits, considered by many policymakers to be the single best weapon in the antipoverty arsenal, because the credit rewards working people and raises many families above the poverty line.

Pennsylvania has not created such a credit.

“There’s silence on poverty in Pennsylvania - no serious discussion of poverty reduction at all,” said Sharon Ward, executive director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a research group in Harrisburg.

-The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 15th, 2008, by Alfred Lubano

Please join the PA League to learn about what you can ask your elected officials (at all levels of government) to do about poverty and the economic struggle!

Poverty/Economy Issues Forum
Oct 23rd, 6pm-8pm
Kiva Han (Craig & Forbes, 15213)
presentation followed by panel discussion and Q&A

Roxanne on WAMO 106.7 tonight!

Talking about the youth vote in PA…don’t miss it!

“Do we take our right to vote for granted?…Why is this election historic? Stop the Music…Start to Vote! Roxanne will be on WAMO 106.7 live tonight 9/17 from 8-10pm. Spread the word! Tell your kids to listen! Let’s make history!”

-Roxanne

Documentary Screening: Philly’s road to College

Tuesday, Aug 26th - First Person Documentary Screening
6pm - 9pm - The Pittsburgh Project, 2801 North Charles Street (Northside)
The PLYVEF is happy to help WYEP and Valley View Presbyterian Church bring you a documentary told through the eyes of six promising inner city Philadelphia teens as their paths take them to community college and to the corner, to pending motherhood and to prison.

First Person provides a deeply personal examination of how navigating the college pipeline leads to a dream deferred for far too many young people. First Person is also scheduled for public television broadcast in Fall 2008. Refreshments and discussion will follow the screening. Please join us to advocate for the improvement of circumstances facing many of our youth!

There will be another screening on August 28th from 6pm - 9pm on the Southside at 67 Bedford Square in the WYEP studios on the Southside. Both events are free to the public.

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