When my group of friends and I graduated from college over a year ago, we thought we were set. We had so many hopes for the future and thought we were about to take the world by a storm.

Little did we know that half of all recent college grads under 25 are jobless or underemployed. But we aren’t the only young adults unemployed – in fact, comparatively, college grads are doing better than those who never attended schools past high school.

So, who is unemployed in California?

• 15.1% of 25 to 34 years olds with a High School degree
• 11% of 25 to 34 years olds with an Associate’s degree
• 7.9% of 25 to 34 years olds with a Bachelor’s degree

What do these stats mean? Getting a degree helps and reduces your chance of being unemployed.  Yet, the recession is showing us that even though it’s easier to find a job with a degree, the struggle is still real for young adults throughout the country.

“Why can’t I find a job? When will I be able to use my degree?” are common questions young adults from our generation are asking themselves daily in this economy.

So, what can we do about it?

As an organization founded on the mission to amplify the voices of our generation, Young Invincibles has launched a national Jobs Tour to highlight programs throughout the country that are training members of our generation to be active participants in our society’s workforce.

The Jobs Tour is meant to help bring this issue to the attention of the public at large, including policymakers and stakeholders.

Want to get involved?

Visit our Jobs Tour website and learn about events happening in your area. We are here to voice your concerns so let us know your suggestions, recommendations, & concerns!

CONTACT:
Rae Roca, Young Invincibles
Rae.roca@younginvincibles.org
202-378-3526

Nick McGee, Congressman Larry Buschon’s Office
nick.mcgee@mail.house.gov
202-225-4636

Congressman Bucshon to Address Indiana’s Young Adult Unemployment Crisis At YouthBuild Event
Young Invincibles releases report showing unemployment rate for young Hoosiers ages 16 to 24 is 15 percent

[EVANSVILLE, Ind.] – In a time of tight budgets and a slowly recovering economy, dismal job prospects continue to leave young Americans unsure about their economic future. Currently, young adults face a national unemployment rate of 16.1 percent, which is over twice the national average. In Indiana, the unemployment rate for young adults is almost twice the state average.

Congressman Larry Bucshon will meet with YouthBuild participants to discuss Indiana’s youth unemployment crisis and how jobs training programs such as YouthBuild are helping to address the issue.

When: Friday, May 24 at 9:00AM CDT
Where: CK Newsome Center
100 E. Walnut Street, Evansville, IN

Today, Young Invincibles released a detailed analysis of unemployment for young people in Indiana. The fact sheet, GET THE FACTS About Youth Unemployment in Indiana [http://jobs.younginvincibles.org/get-the-facts-about-youth-unemployment-in-indiana/] gives an in-depth look into how economic opportunity for young adults in the state has fallen.

-Just 56 percent of young people in Indiana between the ages of 18 and 24 who have jobs work full-time, down from 64 percent in 2005.

-Young people in Indiana between the ages of 25 to 34 make more than $5,400 less today than in 2005.

Studies show that the inability to gain early work experience dims career prospects for a lifetime; if we do not act now, this crisis could have far-reaching economic consequences for all those living in Indiana.

This event is open to the public. Members of the media are encouraged to RSVP by emailing rae.roca@younginvincibles.org or adrianne.burke@younginvincibles.org. For information please visit http://jobs.younginvincibles.org.

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Young Invincibles is a national organization committed to amplifying the voices of young Americans, aged 18 to 34, and expanding economic opportunity for our generation. Young Invincibles ensures that young Americans are represented in today’s most pressing societal debates through cutting-edge policy research and analysis and innovative campaigns designed to educate, inform and mobilize our generation to change the status quo.

We’re all for family photos- to an extent.  We want better economic opportunities for our generation so we can move out of our parent’s house and see less photos like this one.  Check out jobs.younginvincibles.org to learn more.  

It doesn’t seem like our generation is a high priority at this point.  What are your thoughts? 

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Minneapolis Millennials Demand Facts on Youth Jobs Crisis:
Event to highlight critical solutions to combat youth unemployment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. –Young Invincibles has taken their Get the Facts About Youth Jobs Tour to Minneapolis to hear directly from young people dealing with unemployment woes in their community, and to hear about solutions that are working on the ground. The event comes on the heels of a state report released this month [http://jobs.younginvincibles.org/get-the-facts-about-youth-unemployment-in-minnesota/] on the high rate of unemployment for young people in Minnesota.

While in Minneapolis, Young Invincibles will lead an event with Tree Trust – an urban forestry focused program that addresses unemployment by hiring job seekers to plant trees and reforest the Twin Cities. Program participants hail from TreeTrust’s YouthBuild program as well as Tree Trust’s Young Adult Conservation Corps. The event will include a roundtable discussion with program participants and staff, followed by visits to each job training site on the following day.

WHAT:
Get the Facts About Youth Jobs – Minneapolis

WHEN:
Monday, May 20, 2013
9:00 AM-11:30 AM

Tuesday, May 21
TBA

WHERE:
2231 Edgewood Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55426

Members from the media are invited to attend each of these events, and are encouraged to RSVP prior to attending.

Media, please note: One-on-one interviews may be scheduled with Kim Lawler of Tree Trust kim.lawler@treetrust.org and Young Invincibles State Outreach and Policy Coordinator Erin Hemlin erin.hemlin@younginvincibles.org at each event.

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Young Invincibles is a national organization committed to amplifying the voices of young Americans, aged 18 to 34, and expanding economic opportunity for our generation. Young Invincibles ensures that young Americas are represented in today’s most pressing societal debates through cutting-edge policy research and analysis, and innovative campaigns designed to educate, inform and mobilize our generation to change the status quo.

The numbers are disturbing…

Contact:
Adriana Zyskowski
adriana.zyskowski@younginvincibles.org
213.500.4059

Young Invincibles’ Statement on California Health Benefit Exchange designated as National Voting Rights Act Agency

[LOS ANGELES, CA] – California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has designated Covered California, the state’s new Health Benefit Exchange, as a voter registration agency under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Californians will benefit greatly from this streamlined process of increasing access to health care as well as voter registration, improving both Californians’ health and the democratic process. Covered California is leading the rest of the country in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and is now the first state exchange to incorporate voter registration services.

“With 7.4 million uninsured people in California, there is now potential to register large numbers of new voters,” said Tamika Butler, California Director of Young Invincibles. “We are hopeful that other states will follow this lead and designate their Health Benefit Exchanges as voter registration agencies. By doing so, we could see as many as 68 million people register to vote across the country. Young Californians stand to benefit greatly from this designation, as there are an estimated 1.2 million uninsured 18 to 24 year-olds and an estimated 1.7 million 18 to 24 year-olds that are not registered to vote.”

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Young Invincibles is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to amplifying the voices of young Americans, aged 18 to 34, and expanding economic opportunity for our generation. Young Invincibles ensures that young Americans are represented in today’s most pressing societal debates through cutting-edge policy research and analysis and innovative campaigns designed to educate, inform and mobilize our generation to change the status quo.

Guest Post Kate Dickerson, National Women’s Law Center

 If you don’t already know, there are some really awesome parts of the health care law, one of the best being that people can get important preventive care services without a co-pay, deductible, or co-insurance(www.nwlc.org/preventiveservices). This is especially great for young people, like myself, who could not only use the money they could be saving on birth control every month, but might be more likely to get tested for STIs, a screening for HIV, or counseling during their annual visits. But as with everything, it can be complicated. You might have already tried to get one of these services and were still charged a co-pay.

If this has happened to you, the National Women’s Law Center has a great new resource to use. It’s a toolkit called “Getting the Coverage You Deserve: What to Do If You Are Charged a Co-pay, Deductible, or Co-Insurance for a Preventive Service.”(www.nwlc.org/preventiveservices)

 
The toolkit is set-up to provide you with information on coverage of preventive services in the health care law, information on how to find out if your plan is currently covering these services, and detailed instructions on how to appeal to your insurance company if they are not. It even includes draft letters for you to send to your insurance company! Sometimes when time is short or things seem too complicated to bother with, it’s nice to have something to turn to that makes it even just a little bit easier.

 
For more information on preventive services, please visit www.nwlc.org/preventiveservices. Check out the information and if you have questions or need help dealing with your insurance company, let the National Women’s Law Center know by calling 1(866)Pill4Us or email pill4us@nwlc.org.

From the beautiful sunshine to the breathtaking mountain views, the list for why California is so awesome could literally be as big as the state. Aside from the killer scenery, California’s diversity plays a big a role in our state’s greatness. A variety of cultures and languages are intertwined in the foundation of the Golden State. This diversity has helped put our state at the forefront of many things – as fun as entertainment, and as serious as health care – for other states to observe and follow.

One big way California is helping lead the way is with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. With enrollment for the ACA rapidly approaching, being inclusive of the languages that are spoken in California is extremely important for creating a non-scary and understandable enrollment process. Covered California has been a pioneer in the process – their website is already in English and Spanish, and they have informational sheets translated into 13 other threshold languages.

A lot of non-English speakers are uninsured in California:

• 14.5% of Chinese speakers are uninsured
• 22.4% of Vietnamese speakers are uninsured
• 31.3% of Spanish speakers are uninsured

Therefore, marketing in non-English languages will soon increase dramatically.

So, if someone who only speaks Vietnamese reads Vietnamese marketing materials, and chooses that health plan, does that mean their enrollment documents will also be in Vietnamese?

Not necessarily.

For years, health insurance companies have only been required to translate their materials from English into the next major language spoken by their enrollees – usually Spanish. However, SB 353, which is currently pending in the state legislature, proposes a few things:

• Require health plans and insurers that market in non-English languages to provide translated documents in those languages
• Provide the Department of Insurance with greater authority to review and approve insurance marketing materials in other languages
• Provide the Department of Managed Care with a true copy of marketing materials before they are published.
• Violation of the above would be a crime and subject to criminal penalties

Under the proposed law, if insurance companies are marketing in languages other than English, they will then also be required to translate the most important insurance documents (welcome letter, applications for enrollment, and summaries of benefits coverage) into the languages they are marketing in.

According to the 2009 California Health Interview Survey, in California 46.6% of young adults ages 18-24 and 51.6% between the ages of 25-39 speak a language other than English at home. So, the importance of having both marketing materials and health insurance documents in other languages is huge. Signing up for health insurance is already a daunting task – making it as friendly as possible for young adults to understand and help their parents will make a difference come October 1^st.

Contact:
Rae Roca
Rae.roca@younginvincibles.org
202.378.3526

Students Statement in Support of The Student Loan Affordability Act of 2013

This is a statement from Young Invincibles, Campus Progress Action, United States Public Interest Research Group and the United States Student Association

[WASHINGTON, DC] –Today, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced the Student Loan Affordability Act of 2012, which keeps interest rates affordable for students over the next 2 years. If Congress fails to act by July 1, 2013, interest rates on federal Subsidized Stafford Loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. That would hike the cost of college by $1,000 per student, per loan, for over 7 million students across the country.  The bill pays for extending the current interest rates through 2015 by closing three non-education tax loopholes.

We applaud the senators for their long-standing support of students.  This bill creates a workable solution to keep student loan interest rates low until 2015 while Congress seeks to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and reach a comprehensive solution to the student loan crisis that is good for students.

We continue to advocate for a long-term, comprehensive solution that ensures affordable rates, but if Congress cannot find an acceptable long-term solution before July 1, it must act to prevent Subsidized Stafford loan rates from doubling.

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Young Invincibles is a national organization committed to amplifying the voices of young Americans, aged 18 to 34, and expanding economic opportunity for our generation. Young Invincibles ensures that young Americans are represented in today’s most pressing societal debates through cutting-edge policy research and analysis and innovative campaigns designed to educate, inform and mobilize our generation to change the status quo.