We Need More Phillip Agnews: Why Investing in Youth Leadership Pays Off

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http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/we-need-more-phillip-agnews-why-investing-youth-leadership-pays



In the 10 years since People For the American Way Foundation started a program to support the next generation of progressive leaders, we have seen what can happen when organizations make real investments in young people.

Sure, a weekend-long training can be useful as a springboard to identify and engage new talent, or as a supplemental learning experience. But at PFAW Foundation’s Young People For (YP4) program, we’ve learned that these short-term approaches to leadership development are a tiny component of what actually goes into developing a catalytic leader.

Take, for example, Phillip Agnew of the Dream Defenders. Agnew catapulted into the national spotlight last year when he led more than sixty young people into Florida Governor Rick Scott's office three days after the jury handed down a heartbreaking “not guilty” verdict in George Zimmerman's trial. But long before he was a national leader, Phillip Agnew was a business administration major at Florida A&M University who decided to join the inaugural 2005 fellowship class of Young People For.

Focused from the start on collaboration between progressive young people, Agnew’s YP4 fellowship project was organizing a statewide, student-led coalition to lower tuition rates and increase Pell Grant funding in higher education. He worked with other young leaders across Florida to host a training preparing students to lead the advocacy for accessible higher education. Through the YP4 fellowship, he was introduced to critical social issues and learned how to conduct effective community organizing around these issues, including how to champion their message in the media. Agnew became an organizer with the Student Coalition for Justice, a cadre of students from Florida A&M University, Florida State University, and Tallahassee Community College angered by the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at a Florida youth detention center.