Building a Youth Constituency in the U.S. to Fight Global Poverty

Despite the expansion of efforts to teach young people about global poverty and to engage them in opportunities to address it, there is still much to be done to connect more young Americans in a meaningful way to the challenges of global poverty.

This is the conclusion of an expert working group that met at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Pocantico Conference Center in January 2007 to explore the need for and benefits of focused attention on youth engagement for long-term global poverty alleviation.

The discussion included perspectives from representatives of major relief and development agencies in the United States; academics and practitioners from the U.S. educational system; young activists on the frontlines in their schools and communities working to raise awareness about global poverty; organizations committed to connecting young people to poverty-fighting opportunities; and experts in the use of new digital media to engage young people.