Zero Hour and the National Children’s Campaign joined forces in 2019 and 2020 to take civic action toward a more sustainable future for young people across the world. Through this partnership, the Vote For Our Future (V4OF) campaign was created. V4OF was a civic engagement and democracy project to get presidential candidates talking about the largest group of unrepresented American citizens — 74 million children and youth– and the issue that impacts them the most — climate change — so they will take action. We strived to:

1. Drive a paradigm shift with #Vote4OurFuture campaign so people recognize climate change as a generational justice issue and vote on our behalf.
2. Demonstrate the political will of young people to candidates and elected officials to support & enact climate policies.
3. Have a significant focus on the Midwest, specifically Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. 
4. Continue to help pass climate resolutions in school districts, influence schools to create their climate plans, and implement climate education curriculum and energy efficiency programs. We worked with school boards, student councils, PTA’s, teachers’ and unions, to pass climate resolutions.

Young people played a crucial role in the 2020 elections because we are the constituents most impacted by government inaction on the climate crisis. This grassroots-driven campaign (as well as media-driven, both traditional and social) emphasized work in the Midwest. This region played a critical role in deciding the outcome of the presidential election. We educated voters on the importance of fighting for a Green New Deal and how it would benefit the region and the country. Youth mobilized over 7 million people globally in the September 20th and 27th strikes in 2019, and we capitalized on and amplified our existing work to shift the status of national climate action through this Midwestern approach.

We created a social media initiative of young people recording videos, saying why they will vote for the climate in 2020 and why others should join them. We included a voter registration link for the viewers to use if they are not registered.