HISTORY
OUR
TURNING UP
ON THE SCENE
It started more than 4 years ago…
When youth after Parkland showed their power many youth became inspired to act. Some learned about events only by luck, though, leaving out countless of us who would have attended events if only we had known about them. We were frustrated - There was no simple place to find resources, events, and information, because they were posted across hundreds of websites. This made it more difficult to become an activist.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM
After March for Our Lives walkouts, youths became energized! Some wanted to make a community, others led walk-outs which ultimately spanned to climate action. As for Zev Shapiro, he had the idea to create an app to serve as a hub and social network for youth activism - TurnUp.
Zev was on a mission to create an app that would provide a nexus to propel youth activism into the future - a free hub and social networking platform with the power to drive change, made for 21st Century activism. And that he did.
After years of hard work and dedication, our app is now the fastest way for young people to get involved with the issues and causes they care about and become a force for change in their community.
We’ve enabled organizations, campaigns, and individual activists across the Country with the tools needed to collaborate, organize, and effect rapid social change. We’ve harnessed the energy of young people into real, impactful action. We’ve revolutionized the way young activists communicate, while facilitating new coalitions unbound by proximity (over 47 THOUSAND new connections have been made through the app already!)
And we didn't stop there...
The app was successfully developed and launched… but that wasn’t all! TurnUp Activism expanded naturally and spectacularly all while creating the app, and all in time to impact the 2020 elections. The app arrived on the scene in the hands of thousands of eager users around the country that came from our outreach, and from our very own revolutionary training program of over 700 interns who were both galvanized and outfitted with the app, supported by our program, and poised to volunteer for GOTV efforts. Adding to the power of TurnUp was our digital ad campaign bringing about registrations and GOTV efforts in 2020 and the special election in Georgia.
Our Youth volunteers worked in unprecedented ways and with amazing efforts to launch the TurnUp app, and to make their impact in the 2020 elections and social justice landscape. We used revolutionary strategies such as the invention of DM canvassing, mapping every progressive and civic organization, college club, government professor, civics teacher, and youth leader in America. Working together in scores of teams across the country, organized in our training program, the TurnUp youth developed their own brand and marketing strategy, and made an historic splash upon the state of youth voter turnout in America.
WE WANT ALL YOUTH ACTIVISTS READY TO ACT!
Youth volunteers have worked in unprecedented ways and with amazing efforts to launch TurnUp. These have included revolutionary strategies like the invention of DM canvassing, and the mapping of every progressive and civic organization, college club, government professor, civics teacher, and youth leader in America. Working together across the country during a worldwide pandemic, youth developed their own brand and marketing strategy.
Since 2020...
TurnUp has continued its expansion and dramatically increased its reach and impact. TurnUp has made further mobile app developments, introduced a web app, refined the ever evolving and growing Training Program, created Youth voter registration and Civics education outreach programs, and began running the TurnUp Ideas department.
We started in 2018 with the backdrop of our society’s politics, unrest, and social injustices mounting, and we felt the call to see that the youth would no longer have to wonder… How do I find protests and actions? How can I get my friends to engage? How do I register to vote? Now, four years later, the backdrop has only become even more dire, and our society is only in more need of the passion and energy of our youth to help strengthen our imperiled democracy. TurnUp’s powerful trajectory is rising to this occasion as we aim to make civic engagement accessible to every youth in the country.
MORE ABOUT ZEV SHAPIRO
Zev Shapiro started as a community activist in fourth grade by successfully advocating for equal access to healthy food at his public school. At age nine, he launched his political path by volunteering for the senate campaigns of both Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and served, at 10, as the campaign manager for a Cambridge, Massachusetts School Committee candidate. He has spoken to audiences ranging from small campaign gatherings to large auditoriums about the importance and power of community involvement.
Zev was a featured speaker at Thrivals in Louisville, KY in 2013. At the end of 8th grade, he interned for the Chief of Staff at MA Attorney General Maura Healey’s office; at the end of 9th grade, he interned for the State Director at U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office. He was Elizabeth Warren’s special guest to the State of the Union Address in 2014, and he introduced Elizabeth Warren at the 2017 Massachusetts Democratic Convention.
Zev worked for three years as a leader of the Massachusetts High School Democrats and one year as their liaison to the Democratic Party. He has worked on initiatives to increase the youth audience for traditional media/news sources and has been featured on NPR, The Boston Sunday Globe, The Boston Herald, WGBH, NECN, and other television networks. Zev has also created three award winning National History Day Documentaries.
Zev lives in Cambridge, MA and has two younger brothers. He is an avid cycler and tennis player, and plays the violin, viola, and piano. Zev is a junior at Harvard.
