Last week, Demos hosted a conference (A Better Deal Conference) in Washington, DC, which created a convenient opportunity for leading organizations in the youth movement, including YP4, to discuss where the movement was headed. A meeting was called by Mattie Weiss of Campus Camp Wellstone with the intent to get organizing groups to talk to policy organizations about the efficacy of grassroots support and to get policy organizations talking with grassroots organizations about why its important to understand and fight for policy. Like many meetings that mark the beginning of a robust strategy to address holes in movement infrastructure, more questions were asked than answered. But it was exactly the right kind of conversation to be having as the youth movement, along with the left as a whole, prepares to have increased access to information, resources, access to institutions and power. Questions like: What should the next President's first 100 days look like? How can we connect our members, fellows and coordinating activists to progressive policy with the potential to effect real change? How can young progressives win over the next four to eight years on the local and state level? Who is drafting and presenting progressive policies to the next President? We, as organizations, haven't seen any policy platforms or policy drafts, and if a comprehensive and truly progressive platform does exist then we know the youth movement isn't at the table when those policies are being crafted. It's important to the future of the progressive movement as a whole that there be significant investment in the next generation of progressive policy researchers, writers, legislators, organizers and non-profit leaders. And as the investment is made, it's critical that the various facets of the leadership development sector build the infrastructure that will enable our success beyond 2008. This is a long-term conversation with a few potential outcomes. As the program director of YP4, I'm looking for two things in particular:

1. A youth progressive movement policy platform (I submit www.genvote.org as the best example so far)

2. A coordinated grassroots organizing, policy and leadership development youth movement.

I'll keep this page posted with our progress at the youth movement building tables.