In the midst of a polarized political climate, young people have found powerful and innovative ways to make their voices heard in the decision-making process. Following the Parkland school shooting, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students have stepped up to leadership positions, sparking a national movement that catalyzed legislative action, school walks outs, and pressure on corporations to cut ties with the NRA. Before that, young Black Lives Matter activists continued to challenge the nation to face its continuous legacy of racial discrimination. Undocumented youth shared their stories online and in the chambers of national government. Whether or not each of these movements received the attention that the urgency of their cause warranted is a matter of debate, but one phenomenon is clear: millennials dissatisfied with the status quo are stepping up and shaping political discourse in the United States.

Four experienced millennial activists sat on a panel with Hunter College students at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute — each coming from their own social justice organizations and theories of change, but united in their belief that a better world is possible. Each posited that socioeconomic inequality directly impacts young people, and so the actions taken to tackle it on a structural level must involve young people.

Kevin Stump’s efforts at JobsFirstNYC address the increasing precarity of millennials who face significant barriers in the “gig economy.” In New York City alone, 172,000 young adults fall into the “NEET” category – Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Addressing additional areas of vulnerability, Marissa Martin’s work at the Young Invincibles addresses the 28 percent increase in the cost of higher education since the recession while young workers in the labor force are making 20 percent less in income than their parents’ generation.

The conversation often stemmed back to conceptions of power and where it resides, especially within issues of criminal justice. For Dante Barry, co-founder of the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice that began as a social media response to the death of Trayvon Martin, power is the ability to control a narrative. For his work on ending anti-black racism and systemic violence, the key manifestation of power is the ability to reconceptualize notions of safety. Barry asked the students to close their eyes and visualize what comes to mind when they hear the word “safety.” The answers included warm beds and family, not police officers and prisons. For each of these activists, power resides not only in the state, but within the communities most affected by an issue; thus, solutions to the problem must involve young activists of color organizing at the grassroots level.

Jason Marton also channels this approach in his work through JustLeadershipUSA’s campaign to close Rikers Island, where predominantly Black and Latino young inmates face isolation and violence. This campaign requires not only closing the facility, but also reforming bail laws and court processes, as well as reducing unnecessary arrests. The campaign is ultimately about ending mass incarceration and shifting toward community-building.

Campaigns and programs to undo economic and racial structural inequalities will certainly face limitations and challenges. JobsFirstNYC’s innovative programs to reach out-of-school and out-of-work youth, as well as Young Invincibles’ policy proposals on tax agendas that are friendlier to students, may struggle in the current political climate and the erosion of social welfare policies at the federal level. Additionally, campaigns relating to criminal justice and reshaping narratives of safety continue to face cultural pushback and resistance—whether through white supremacist rallies, police forces refusing to accept additional accountability measures, or local urban residents opposing the construction of smaller, safer jails to replace Rikers Island.

Nevertheless, the activists left the students with words of advice in the world of advocacy and organizing: to mobilize people around sets of core values—fairness, equality, justice, and accountability. They encouraged students to act on the issues that are meaningful to them, and see where it takes them to learn how to build coalitions and institutional groundworks for change. Those coalitions must involve the voices of those who are most directly affected, but are usually not brought to the discussion table. Like the campaign to close Rikers, many movements were quickly dismissed as naïve or idealistic, but with persistence, creativity, and authentic-relationship building, the ideas for policy change can jump from small meetings amongst dedicated activists to the inside of City Hall or the White House.