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.

We had a fabulous panel talk about how they got involved with this work, what they are doing now and what they would like to see done in the future. We started off with Michael Connery, author of Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority, talking about the Dean campaign, his blog, and why millenniums don't have the same issues as their parents. Next up was Matt Birkhold who told us a bit about the National Hip Hop Convention and challenged the group to show him where the movement was because he said he doesn't see it. Rachel Bishop from The League of Young Voters gave us a picture of what it was like for her to enter the movement at 17 and then introduced us to the Brooklyn League. We also had the chance to hear from Shaunna Thomas on the work YP4 does and from Sarah Peteraf on all the ways youth can Do Something.

After everyone had said their bit we broke into smaller groups and just talked. Everything and anything from how technology has played a role in the movement to youth's role in gentrification. It was a great exchange of ideas as well as a great time. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves I know I did! Feel free to give me any feed back that I can pass along to the next generation of Brown Bag Lunch planners! Hope to see everyone next year!