Our Work

The City of Atlanta and Atlanta Police Department is committed to destroying over 100 acres of Weelaunee Forest for a police training facility, green lighting $67 million for the project after 15 hrs of near unanimous public comment against it. Despite continuous efforts to suppress the community’s opposition, the Stop Cop City movement is in full swing and we will continue to use our platform to educate our audience and provide calls to action. In 2023, we launched stopcopcity.net, directing people to send over 63,000 emails to contractors, funders, and city council members to cease support of Cop City.

After Florida Governor Ron DeSantis banned AP African American History and the College Board subsequently watered down the course, Gen-Z for Change launched teachthetruth.co. This site allowed young people to easily email the College Board urging them to tell our true, intersectional stories—not just what conservative pundits want to hear. Ultimately, we sent over 30,000 emails, which prompted a response from College Board.

Every June, large corporations change their profile pictures and stock shelves with rainbow-colored products to “support” pride, yet simultaneously donate to Anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and PACs. This comes at a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is sweeping the nation, with over 500 bills introduced in the most recent legislative session, and 87 passing in 23 states (Trans Legislation Tracker).
In response, Gen-Z for Change launched paybackpride.org. We summed up donation records from over 100 companies to PACs (RSLC, RAGA, and RGA) and state legislators in the 23 states that have passed and implemented anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Through our content and email tool, people sent over 7,000 emails to companies telling them their solidarity is not for sale.

In March 2023, the Biden Administration approved the Willow Project, despite over 1.1 million letters sent to the White House to stop the project. Alongside impact producer Alex Haraus, Gen-Z for Change led an effort to generate over 80,000 emails and 8,000 calls to Congress urging for a suspension of Willow permits until litigation is completed. Ultimately, 33 members of Congress signed onto a letter led by Representatives Huffman, Ocasio-Cortez, and Bowman to suspend Willow permits. 

Gen-Z for Change is advocating for the Biden Administration to declare a Climate Emergency, which would unlock executive powers to phase out fossil fuels and more. In collaboration with U.S. Representatives Summer Lee and Jamaal Bowman, as well as Senator Ed Markey, we generated over half a million views in 2 days urging Biden to make this executive move. 

In collaboration with Advocates for Youth, we mobilized content to advocate for Progesterone-only birth control to be available over the counter without age restrictions. Working from before the FDA scheduled a hearing until they ultimately approved it and the Biden administration passed with no qualms, we put out content totaling 120 thousand views.

In July, we launched an IG story mini-series called Congressations in partnership with Teen Vogue where members of Gen-Z for Change sat down with Representatives and Senators to discuss issues our generation is most passionate about. We created content with Rep. Summer Lee, Rep. Maxwell Frost, Rep. Jeff Jackson, Sen. Alex Padilla, Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Robert Garcia, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and Rep. Primila Jayapal.

In November 2023, Starbucks Workers United launched Red Cup Rebellion, where workers across 100+ locations went on strike during Red Cup Day, Starbucks’ most profitable day of the year. We coordinated with Starbucks Workers United to create content about the strike. Overall, 700,000 views of the 1.0M views total on #RedCupRebellion came from 20+ Gen-Z for Change coalition members.  

Gen-Z for Change is unequivocally in support of a permanent ceasefire, unconditional release of all hostages and political prisoners, and an end to occupation. Over the last 2 months, Gen-Z for Change generated over  4.6 million views educating our audience on the history of Palestine and urging them to take action, including calling their representatives to urge them to sign onto Cori Bush’s CeaseFire Now Resolution. We also wrote a letter alongside leaders of the Sunrise Movement, March for Our Lives, and United We Dream to urge President Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire. 

During the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, creators across social media were offered payment to promote stuck work on their platforms. In coordination with SAG-Aftra and WGA, Gen-Z for Change launched Labor Over Likes, a solidarity pledge refusing to promote struck work for the duration of the strike and abide by SAG-AFTRA’s Influencer Guidance. Ultimately, over 250 content creators with a combined following of 150 million signed our pledge. Our Deputy Executive Director Victoria Hammett spoke at a SAG-AFTRA rally about the success of our campaign in September. 

On July 7th 2023, Gen-Z for Change launched Gen-Z X El Cambio, a hub for Gen-Z latino creators to share their perspective and educate others on U.S. history, politics, and pop culture. Run by and for Gen-Z Latinos, we will continue to nurture this space of diverse and rich experiences, as well as launch issue-based and Get Out the Vote campaigns.

In August 2023, Gen-Z for Change coordinated with Grindr United workers to generate awareness of unfair labor practices and gather signatures for their petition to respect workers’ right to organize and to negotiate in good faith. By the first video, the petition to support Grindr’s union with CWA jumped from 1,100 to over 8,000. We will continue to support Grindr United however we can in their efforts to garner a fair contract. 

Gen–Z for Change was invited to Representative Bowman’s introduction of the More Teaching, Less Testing Act. This transformative piece of legislation is designed to prioritize classroom learning and individualized education, rather than tired and deeply flawed standardized exams. Our Mobilization Coordinator, Jack Petocz, spoke at the introduction and shared his experience organizing for quality education in the state of Florida. 

In coordination with creator Imani Barbarin (@crutches_and_spice), Gen-Z for Change launched No Labor Day to educate others on ongoing labor organizing and fundraise for striking unions on the Labor Day Holiday. This campaign generated over 350,000 on the #NoLaborDay hashtag. 

In response to widespread GOP attacks on education, Gen-Z for Change launched our Banned Books Initiative to educate young people on current events, the history of fascism, and how to take action to safeguard our fundamental right to learn. 

Voting participation is crucial for a sustainable democracy, and we worked to increase youth awareness on crucial state elections this year. In Ohio, we worked heavily to encourage voters to Vote No on Issue 1 and Vote Yes to codify the right to abortion into Ohio Law. In Virginia, we created content about the importance of this election to protect immigrants and the dangers of a GOP majority in the General Assembly for crucial Gen-Z issues across the board. 

In 2022, Gen-Z for Change aimed to empower young voters for the Midterms, focusing on making their voices heard. We held a 22-hour livestream two weeks before the election, featuring voter engagement, panel discussions, and interviews with politicians like Beto O’Rourke and Anna Eskamani. We also spotlighted Gen-Z candidates for local offices to highlight their impact.

Additionally, we conducted live interviews on TikTok and Instagram with figures such as Val Demmings, Bill Nye, and Gisele Fetterman. To aid young voters in politically challenging households, we created the Boomer Bible, a guide detailing conservative politicians' policies. This aimed to educate relatives and community members about detrimental anti-youth policies. We also publicized a list of Gen-Z for Change-endorsed candidates, focusing on progress in key areas. In the lead-up to the election, we maintained a steady stream of voting information on social media, collaborated in phone-banking with Voters of Tomorrow and Students for (Josh) Shapiro, and took over Teen Vogue’s Instagram on election day. Our efforts culminated in raising $141,000 for candidates like Beto O’Rourke, Raphael Warnock, and Mike Collier.

In August of 2022, we launched an initiative to uplift and further the efforts of unionizing Amazon workers fighting for fair wages, safe workplace conditions, and a union. We organized a coalition of over 70 TikTok creators with a combined 51 million followers, refusing to monetize our platforms for Amazon. Until Amazon met the demands of the Amazon Labor Union, we would cease all Amazon sponsorships and usage of Amazon’s storefront. While we are proud of this initial effort, we will continue to grow People Over Prime’s coalition and collaborate with like-minded labor unions and organizations to further support Amazon workers.

Visit the People Over Prime website!

As politicians stood idly by after the fall of Roe v. Wade, our team sprung into action and launched our SAFER initiative to help safeguard reproductive care. SAFER (Spam, Assist, Fund, Educate, Register) is an acronym for the efforts we spearheaded to make abortion safer in America. First, we created a tool that automatically generated 26,000 accurate reviews for Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), clinics that disguise themselves as abortion providers only to attempt to coerce women to not terminate their pregnancies. Then, we took to social media by using our collective platforms to raise awareness about these deceptive clinics, which included writing a press release with Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) as well as coordinating with Yelp’s policy lead. As a direct result of these actions, Yelp added a disclaimer to all CPCs, stating that they provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals. The Attorney General of Texas is now suing Yelp as a result of our campaign and Yelp's response.

Furthermore, we shared ways that community members could assist those seeking abortions by volunteering in a range of initiatives. Finally, we created a joint abortion fund that distributed all donations evenly among 50 local abortion clinics throughout the United States. Olivia Julianna, a Gen-Z for Change member, turned a Twitter feud with Matt Gaetz into a fundraising opportunity, driving over $2 million to the fund. We used our platform to educate people about the importance of reproductive rights, generating millions of views. Finally, we encouraged people to register to vote for politicians who would protect reproductive rights across the country.

Visit the S.A.F.E.R website!

Conservative political pundit Laura Ingraham created a tipline to report teachers for… teaching? Ingraham touted that some teachers were attempting to “destroy a child's innocence in the name of tolerance.” To prevent making teaching an even more difficult job, we created code that sent in fake tips to nullify the tipline.

Visit the Let Them Teach website!

Since December of 2021, Starbucks locations have joined in the historic fight for labor rights in the United States, unionizing stores and calling for better working conditions and benefits. Starbucks has continually refused to bargain with workers in good faith and also attempted to hire scab workers through online applications. In February, we created code that sent fake job applications to union-busting Starbucks locations to ensure that workers’ demands were met. We sent 140,000 false applications to stores across the country!

Visit the Change is Brewing website!

During the Covid-19 surge in 2020, Gen-Z for Change knew it was imperative to educate young people on the dangers of Covid and the ways in which people can protect themselves and their loved ones. In response, we partnered with the group Made To Save and launched our creator network. We called on dozens of TikTok creators to post videos correcting covid-19 misinformation, encouraging people to get vaccinated, and sharing social distancing tips. Additionally, our creators were able to sit down with Dr. Fauci to ask him generation-z’s questions about Covid and vaccines. Dr. Fauci’s answers were then shared to our creators’ massive audiences. By the end of this project, we accumulated more than 12.7 million views on TikTok sharing accurate covid-19 information and encouraging vaccines.