Gen Z is the most opinionated generation. So let's get y'all in the right rooms.
Gen Z talks to lawmakers, signs petitions, and turns out to vote at higher rates than any generation on record. The problem isn't apathy — it's access. Here's what TWIN's Policy & Civic Engagement Initiative is doing about it.
There's a tired narrative about Gen Z that says they're disengaged, doom-scrolling, can't focus past 30 seconds. The data says the opposite. Across every metric of civic engagement that researchers actually track — direct contact with lawmakers, signing petitions, attending protests, voter turnout — Gen Z either matches or beats every generation that came before them.
The numbers
of Gen Z have contacted a lawmaker, signed a petition, or attended a protest in the past year
of Millennials. 41% of Gen X. 38% of Boomers.
Sources: Pew Research (2023), Harvard IOP Youth Poll (2024), CIRCLE Tufts (2024). The pattern is consistent across surveys, sampling methods, and years. Gen Z is, statistically, the loudest generation alive.
So what's the actual problem?
It isn't that they don't have opinions. It isn't that they don't care. The problem is that the rooms where policy gets made — City Council chambers, state Assembly floors, federal staff offices, courtrooms, law firm boardrooms — are still gatekept by the same network effects that always gatekept them. If you didn't grow up around lawyers, legislators, or civic insiders, you don't know how to get in. You don't know who to email. You don't know what a one-pager is. You don't know that you're allowed to testify at a public hearing.
And so a generation with the loudest voice on record gets stuck shouting into a feed that algorithmically dampens their reach. The problem is access. Always access.
The TWIN response: the Policy & Civic Engagement Initiative
In parallel with our mentorship and campus-access tracks, TWIN runs a Policy & Civic Engagement Initiative that introduces East Harlem youth to systems of government, law, and advocacy. Through engagement with institutions like the New York City Council and direct interaction with legal professionals, participants gain exposure to spaces and careers often viewed as distant or inaccessible.
“Possibility is not determined by background — but by exposure, access, and support.”
— TWIN Initiative — core principle
Cohort members spend time in actual chambers. They sit in on hearings. They meet the staffers who write the bills their block lives under. They learn to write policy briefs, op-eds, and one-pagers — the formats lawmakers actually read — and publish them in real outlets. Each cohort picks one local issue and runs a 3-month advocacy campaign with mentor support. Some end up testifying at City Council. Some end up on local news. Some end up working in those buildings as adults.
Why this is the face of TWIN
Of all four TWIN programs, this is the one that most cleanly proves the founding thesis. A young person from East Harlem walking into a Council chamber in a suit isn't a fantasy. It's a calibrated, repeatable program. By bringing youth into these environments, we ensure that participants are no longer confined to a perceived reality shaped by limited exposure — but instead develop a broader, evidence-based understanding of what is achievable, and see themselves reflected in those possibilities.
