Welcome to Power uP With YOUth- uP The Turnout!

Power uP With YOUth– uP The Turnout was our first campaign. It’s intent was to increase voter turnout by engaging these youth to encourage their peers, friends, and families to vote.

Our Challenge:
Turning Hardship, Silence, Confusion, and Disconnect into
Trust and Informed Action

San Diego City and County District 4 residents and San Diego Unified School District E are at the heart of our efforts. All are diverse, culturally rich, and systemically underserved.

The first step in demanding better service, better representation, and better investment is to use the power of the vote. Our challenge was to use create an action plan to recognize build and use their voting power effectively.

During the classroom portion of the campaign the students saw a disturbing gap: while 75% of eligible residents were registered to vote, only 25% actually voted. So we surveyed our community and its government. We found:

Hardship
- Almost 20% of children live below the poverty level
- Housing is unaffordable for most of District 4 residents. Median rent is
$1900/month, Most families of 4 need rent to be less than $700/month
- Families struggle to access nutritious food, healthcare and safe sustainable
living conditions

Silence
- The residents don’t make their voices heard
- The residents don’t hold their elected officials accountable.
- Many initiatives seeking change addressing them have been languishing in
the “system” for 20 years.
- three of four registered voters don’t vote

Confusion
- the process was too complicated
- ballots and complex issues were difficult to understand
- the voting methods were hard to use properly
- the voting location was always changing

Disconnect
- their voices didn’t matter
- politicians only came around to get their vote not represent their needs
- nothing ever changes

Our work and Our Results

  • We learned about voting history, voting processes, and voting the issues

  • We learned how to communicate to rebuild trust

  • We selected the most inclusive accessible voting processes

  • We engaged our community leaders and elected officials

  • We engaged and informed our peers, families, and friends

  • We helped our community vote their values


Our Results: We made history!
120 students engaged over 1,200 voters to participate in the 2024 election.

Learn about what we did and how we did it!
* Our history * Our schools activities * Our community outreach
* Our Vote-by-mail Events * Our voter education materials
* Our Celebration