Emily Kinkead, 23, explains the importance of Wednesday's Briefcase Brigade to a group of co-workers at Common Cause, a nonprofit where she interns. Kinkead leads the Maryland Briefcase Brigade at Rep. Chris Van Hollen's offices.
The message "My common cause is youth empowerment" hangs above Kinkead's desk at Common Cause.
WASHINGTON – As Congress negotiates impending budget cuts including a possible reduction of federal grants to college students, unemployment among those under 30 is higher than the national average. A group of young adults who call themselves the “Briefcase Brigade” is heading to Capitol Hill Wednesday to urge lawmakers to support educational funding and to deliver on promises of jobs.
Across the country, many young people are feeling trapped. Overwhelmed with student loans in a stagnant job market, some are looking to Congress for support.
Clad in business attire, 23-year-old Emily Kinkead will join a group of young adults from Maryland knocking on Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s door to discuss what he’s doing about youth unemployment.
“We have done everything that has been asked for us to prepare for a successful career and yet there are no jobs for us,” she says. “So we’re showing up and we’re saying, ‘We’re ready, we’re here, where are the jobs?'”
The D.C. Brigade will hand out a generational resume as a gesture that young people are ready to work.
Ian Maggard, a 24-year-old student at the University of the District of Columbia says he’ll ask lawmakers to reconsider education funding cuts Maggard said the Pell Grant was fundamental in his higher education.
“I don’t understand how we can have deficit reduction if we don’t have an educated workforce for the future,” he says. “I think right now should be a perfect time to invest for the future to get us the higher paying jobs.”
Kinkead says Wednesday’s event is just the beginning.
“We will never be heard and things will never change as long as we stay silent so we have to keep pushing until we’re heard,” she says.
Briefcases in hand, the D.C. Brigade will take that message to Capitol Hill Wednesday at noon.