As the rise of political and ethical issues create a distinct division between political parties, paired with the upcoming presidential election, the need for voter awareness has become more crucial than ever. Lancaster Youth for Change (YFC), a youth-led caucus composed of teens around the local area, uses their growing Instagram platform to address both global and Lancaster-based subtopics that are useful to understand in preparation for voting. 

On the local and national level, a new wave of young voters whose voices are expected to dramatically affect the outcome of the election have been the driving force for high school and college students to spread facts about different political policies. 

Raising awareness to the public on a broader scale than previous years is exactly what Lancaster YFC aims to achieve. Established by high school and college students from Lancaster in July 2020, YFC’s main focus has been sharing bipartisan information on global and national issues, such as climate change, healthcare, and swing states. They also include locally-focused information, such as lists of Manheim Township School Board members and descriptions of candidates running for various Pennsylvania government positions. 

“We felt like there was a lack of a platform for youth in our area to discuss common politics and issues that we care about, and [we wanted to] get the word out to youth on things that we’re really passionate about,” says member and Manheim Township graduate Lucy Svetec. 

“We want to create a political climate for people to learn, be opinionated, and be able to share their opinion with others,” she said. 

The team has weekly brainstorming meetings to determine the topics they cover on their Instagram page. Much thought goes into these meetings, as the team is motivated by their main goal which is to provide their audience with a broad horizon of information.

On their Instagram page, with slightly over 300 followers, various informative slides are posted. The slides are labeled with a brief title and a catchy introductory phrase, so as to grab the readers’ attention. For example, some posts say “so you want to talk about,”- “let’s learn about,”- and “let’s talk about.”

Through Lancaster YFC’s page, individuals of all ages are able to learn information such as voter suppression, women’s equality day, the 2020 vice-presidential candidates, the difference between medicare and medicaid, and more.

Lancaster YFC hopes that their platform “is sustained past the election. We’re working to change the political environment in Lancaster, by having it be a safe space for people to converse and explore their ideals.”- Lucy Svetec.

A social media page aside from Instagram is not in the works, as YFC hopes to grow their main platform on the app further.

Post-election, Lancaster Youth for Change hopes to continue adding valuable and useful content to their page to further benefit the Lancaster youth community and overall contribute to establishing a healthy political environment for teenagers in the local area.