Focus the Nation are dedicated to providing opportunities for community education on clean energy, sustained engagement with elected officials, and developing clean energy leaders.
Mission
Focus the Nation empowers young people to accelerate the transition to a more just and prosperous clean energy future.
ABOUT
Focus the Nation is a national non-profit headquartered Portland, Oregon. They believe in the science of climate change and the opportunity it presents to rebuild American communities and US leadership at the local and international level. They are driven by a fierce commitment to empower young people with the leadership, educational and engagement opportunities that will accelerate our transition to a more just and prosperous clean energy future.
Through their Civic Engagement program area, They have executed two national campaigns on climate change and clean energy that have supported young leaders in sustained engagement with local, regional and federal elected and business leaders—building bridges between generations, campuses and communities and areas of the country that find themselves at different points (and velocities) along the trajectory toward the clean energy future.
Our 2008 Civic Engagement campaign organized 1900 climate change teach-ins on college campuses on Jan. 31, 2008, engaging 64 members of Congress in direct dialogue with youth activists during the height of the early presidential primaries. Between teach-ins and web-casts, we directly engaged more than 240,000 people in climate change educational forums. The teach-ins generated more than 900 press hits, including articles in TIME, Grist, New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, USA Today, MSNBC, Los Angeles Times and nearly every major daily from the Houston Chronicle to the Boston Globe.
Kicking off with Sen. Arlen Specter just days before he switched parties, their 2009 campaign organized 103 high-profile clean energy town halls during the April Congressional recess on and around April 18, 2009. With this campaign, they built off of their organizing tools and successful direct-dialogue model from the 2008 teach-ins and collaborated with partners like 1Sky, Energy Action Coalition, Sierra Student Coalition, BICEP, National Wildlife Federation, ACORE, 350.org and the Center for Food Safety. 75 members of Congress participated in the April Town Halls, 24 of whom are considered swings. Of swing Representatives who participated either live or with staff, 60% voted ‘Yes’ on ACES, compared to 40% of swings overall.
In April, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. John Kerry, said, “I want to thank everyone at Focus the Nation for their tireless effort to increase awareness of and prompt action to address global climate change and secure America’s energy future.” And Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said, “Since its inception, Focus the Nation has provided opportunities for young leaders across the country to make their voices heard.”
Their Beyond Carbon Leadership program area runs the Focus Roots Fellowships—a competitive, annual series of $10,000 grants awarded to the most innovative and creative young climate leaders. These fellowships invest in the early careers of promising young leaders needing financial and operational support to execute vibrant solutions to our crisis.
They are a small staff in Portland, Oregon with rockstar organizers and volunteers all over the country.
Focus the Nation is able to thrive because of the generous financial support from people like you.
For more information please visit - http://focusthenation.org/
