Program areas at YI
Our higher education program addresses major higher education challenges such as affordability, access, completion, and student loan repayment. Our higher education agenda is built from conversations with student leaders, surveys, polling, data research, and policy analysis. We engage and train students around the country impacted by these issues to become leaders, education the public about challenge and opportunities in higher education, and advocate for reforms.
Our workforce and finances program encompasses a broad range of issues including workforce skills, financial security, job quality, and entrepreneurship. Nationally, the program has focused on research projects to understand the unique economic challenges facing the millennial generation. On the state level, we have led a series of focus groups and listening sessions with Young people primarily from underrepresented communities to share the barriers they face to achieving quality jobs. These conversations have informed our research agenda, and efforts to advance reforms in policy and practice with a particular focus on apprenticeship.
Our health care program focuses on increasing access to quality health insurance coverage and ensuring Young people have the tools to obtain the care they need. We do this through a variety of outreach channels including community workshops on health coverage, training partner organizations about how to reach Young adults, providing online information on our website and over social media, and developing innovative digital applications to help consumers make health care choices. In addition to our outreach program, we also engage in policy research, develop policy solutions that increase access to quality coverage, education the public about these solutions, and advocate for reforms.
For more than fifteen years, yi has built a hybrid approach to engagement and organizing; one that blends deep leadership training and personal growth experiences with broader grassroots advocacy activities. Our relationships with Young people are authentic, meaningful, and rich, and that translates into a powerful foundation for building personal power and agency. The Young advocates program is a paid leadership program developed by Young Invincibles currently running in Colorado, California, Illinois, new york, and Texas. Young advocates work with our teams to strengthen the voices of Young people across our issue areas. This includes overseeing on-the-ground and digital organizing, such as planning state and local events, including virtual events, to educate and facilitate discussions on pressing issues affecting their generation. They have the opportunity to work with our policy team to research and propose solutions to some of these challenges and to work with our communications team to amplify their stories and messages.