August 23, 2012
Contact: Rae Roca
Rae.Roca@younginvincibles.org
202.378.3526

Young Invincibles Releases 12 Big Ideas To Get Young Adults Back on Track

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, Young Invincibles released the “Young American Ideas Book: 12 Solutions to Help Get Our Generation Back on Track.”  The solutions are meant to give policymakers concrete ideas for addressing some of the major economic issues facing young adults including jobs, higher education and health care.

These ideas are not designed to be comprehensive solutions, but rather provide concrete, pragmatic steps that our political leaders can take right now to address the economic problems facing young people.  The 12 solutions are based on discussions with young adults across the country, available data, and expert opinion.

Policy ideas include:

1. Create 500,000 AmeriCorps jobs, so that young adults can serve our country and get valuable work experience.   Last year, 500,000 people applied for 80,000 positions.
2. Establish the “American Counseling Fellows” program to send 30,000 recent college grads into high schools to assist under-staffed school counselors in career and college counseling; like Teach for America for school counselors.
3. Require disclosures on all TV college advertisements where schools must publish their employment rates after graduation.
4. Student loan repayment programs made easy and pumped-up financial aid counseling to help students make good decisions and repay student loans.

“These 12 ideas are game changers for our generation and show that young adults can be the leaders of real, substantive change in this country.  For too long, our politicians have seemed stuck in the same old debates, while young adults fall farther away from the American Dream,” said Aaron Smith, co-founder & executive director of Young Invincibles. “Instead of focusing on political distractions, young voters will be looking for our leaders to put out proposals like these and others to directly address real issues impacting our generation and our future.”

The ideas book is a part of Young Invincibles’ #CanYouHearMeNow campaign, which seeks to propel a conversation about economic opportunity for young adults and drive meaningful policy solutions. To download the report, visit https://younginvincibles.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Young-American-Ideas-Book.pdf.