Leveraging the digital social networks popular among students, Youth Charge Now! launched a nationwide campaign to educate and encourage youth to become leaders in civic engagement. In partnership with Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, Engage Her a national organization promoting leadership among multicultural youth and communities has partnered with dozens of organizations aimed at the millions of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth new to the political arena.

In many states the Asian American population has risen dramatically like: California, New York, Washington, Texas, New Jersey and Hawaii. In California, where Asians comprised 14% of the overall state population in 2006, their votes can have dramatic impact on the outcome of hotly contested battles like the Governorship and Senate race. Asian youth have the X-factor: they influence their family, friends and communities to engage and vote. The Youth Charge Now! campaign is encouraging Asian American students to recruit others to join the organization, including $500 in cash and the chance to win a Kollaboration Concert at their college or university. Kollaboration is a popular concert series incorporating hip hop and rap music performed by APA youth in venues across the United States.

The campaign will use digital tools, such as texting, YouTube videos and enlist popular Asian American YouTube celebrities to create a national network of connections around civic engagement and voting. The Youth Charge Now! campaign has signed up the leading APA national youth and community partners – including Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, East Coast Asian American Student Union, Midwest Asian American Student Union, KAYA: Filipinos for Progress and National Association of Asian American Professionals. The website lso offers an optional voter registration through a partnership with Votolatino.org’s United We Win and partners with VoteAgain 2010 with their 35+ youth partners to promote voting in the midterm elections targeted to multicultural communities. The long-term goal of the campaign is to mobilize APIA youth to become involved and supportive of key issues that face our youth.

Here’s a few other voting PSAs: Reel in the Vote with Preschoolers, Officer Bart Kwan wants you to vote, Reel in the Vote with Randall Park, Embrace Your Power with Kelly Hu and George Takei, Power of the Swing Vote

Nicki Sun for Youth Charge Now!