New Spots Stress Importance of Young at Community Level

Grainy black-and-white footage fills the television screen with energetic young men slashing and weaving on skateboards across the concrete and curbs in Santa Cruz. A narrator breaks into the punk-rock soundtrack: “Call them what you want, but these guys asked the City Council for a skateboard park--and got it.”

With that, the skaters disappear from the streets and instead soar above a half-pipe ramp. A message appears: “Rock the Nation.”

This prototype public service announcement, the likes of which could appear on MTV and other stations as soon as July 2, typifies a new two-year campaign planned by Santa Monica-based Rock the Vote, a group founded in 1990 by members of the recording industry primarily to encourage voter registration across the country.

In another planned spot, teenage Latinas from South-Central Los Angeles reflect on why they established a cooperative that brings fresh food into their neighborhood.

“I will rock the nation because it’s where I live, because no one seems to care,” one of the girls says over a montage of slow-moving shots of her neighborhood. “In 1996, my friends and I saw that young mothers in South-Central L.A. needed a place to buy inexpensive groceries. Instead of waiting for someone to do something, we did it ourselves.”

Rock the Vote’s new “Rock the Nation” campaign highlights examples of successful youth activism--a new direction for the organization that marked recent changes in its leadership.

Donna Frisky, former development director, assumed the role of executive director in early May. A new president, Seth Matins, former senior vice president of the international sports and entertainment marketing company Proser, starts work next week, Frisky said.

“Voting should not be the only thing that we do,” Frisky said. “People think after they vote that it’s over, but that’s not democracy at all. You also have to stay engaged in what’s happening in your community.”

She added: “My vision for the organization is not to see it as a campaign that comes around every four years. A lot of what we hear is that young people don’t know what services are available to them. We don’t just want to tell people: ‘You can do it.’ We want to show them how. We’re hoping to empower young people.”

Plans for “Rock the Nation” incorporate not only TV commercials but also print ads and radio spots. A July 2 party at Independence Park in Philadelphia will kick off the campaign, Frisky said.

Come September, Rock the Vote and a New York City-based organization called Do Something, founded in 1993 to cultivate the leadership potential of young adults, will work in tandem, visiting various U.S. cities for a week at a time to hold town forums. The sessions are to be moderated by celebrities and will feature live music and highlight local nonprofit groups.

During this “Rock the City” tour, Do Something will focus on recruiting young volunteers to work for local civic and political organizations, planners said.

Rock the Vote soon will distribute a “community action guidebook” at record stores across the country that explains the ins and outs of how local governments function, and how to access them.

And a Rock the Vote “Rock the Ages” campaign, in conjunction with the American Assn. of Retired Persons, will allow senior citizens to join young adults in registering to vote via the Internet before elections this fall.

These campaigns have been made possible, in part, by the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, a group of seven philanthropies that recently granted $4.7 million to Rock the Vote and Do Something.

The groups believe that, despite prevailing images of apathetic youth, the effort to spark community involvement has statistics on its side. According to a 1997 survey for Do Something, 65% of 15- to 29-year-olds volunteered or worked for a community organization at some point in their lives.

The survey found only 6% served with an organization involved in elections, politics or political issues.