So last Friday we had our last Brown Bag Lunch of the summer here at YP4 :-( It focused on the youth movement, where it's been and where it needs to go.

Many, if not most, in the progressive community are voting for change this year- we saw it in the primaries and the polls suggest we'll see it at all levels of government in November. What is also clear is that the movement has a candidate in Barack Obama, or so he claims.

It is both prudent and wise for youth movement leaders to be optimistic about change, cautious about the possibility of progress, and realistic about how much progressive change Obama and other candidates are actually in favor of, regardless of their ability to realize those changes.

Leadership Academy fellow Josh Bolotsky just posted this Drinking Liberally Shot of Truth at OpenLeft.org. In it, he compares the new Open Society Institute Fellowship to other members of the "progressive-movement-builder" family, spotlights 2007 fellow Alex Hill's S.C.O.U.T.B.A.N.A.N.A., and talks a bit about his experience in the Leadership Academy:

I wrote this awhile ago in one of my other blogs, but my message is still relevant to today.

MICHIGAN STATE- WAKE UP! CAMPUSES ACROSS THE NATION..Do not allow yourselves to fall into a stagnant state of political apathy.

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While it's not always the case that the blogger community and campus activists are on the same political page, plenty of people are starting to think about online networking as a component of youth movement building. As someone who frequents conferences and "youth progressive movement" panels often, I was pleased with a recent round-up of individuals and organizations at Yearly Kos (disclaimer: I am one of the panelists). There were many more young people in attendance this year (though still not enough). Panels like this should help keep young bloggers engaged in the future.

The most pointed and substantive remarks came during the Q&A session — If you are going to pick one YouTube link, I would go for Q&A Parts 1 and 2, which spoke to collaboration, election-year organizing and sustainability in the movement discussions.

Videos of the panel are now up on Mike Connery's blog at Future Majority.

Starting on Monday, 575 colleges and high schools across the nation are launching Rising to the Challenge, a Week of Action on Climate Change including screenings of An Inconvenient Truth, requests for strong campus climate neutrality policies, and push national and regional policy for renewable energy and global warming solutions.

Check out if you're school is participating at http://www.climatechallenge.org/woa and check out the national map. Join in!