Generation Squeeze not Generation Screwed
Photo courtesy of gensqueeze.ca
Blog post by Hailey Froese
Many, if not most, of current university students and recent graduates face daunting prospects outside of the university bubble. Unemployment, high housing prices, and low wages are just some of the depressing realities that have taken a toll on young peoples’ abilities to look at their future with much hope and optimism. These issues make many people under 40 question what they personally are doing wrong and why they are failing and falling behind. Dr. Paul Kershaw, a UBC scholar who studies public policy at the School of Population and Public Health, argues that it is not personal problems that are holding people back but rather societal factors which have created a demographic – Generation Squeeze.
Listen to Sam’s interview with Professor Kershaw:
Generation Squeeze is also the name of a campaign Dr. Kershaw founded and launched with a network of others, which aims to address this problem through education and policy advocacy. While Dr. Kershaw points out that many young people feel more like ‘Generation Screwed’, he also believes that public policy can be used as a tool to push back against these burdens and that there is a way to improve. The organization Generation Squeeze has a list on their website of ways you can get involved to help reverse the squeeze:10 Things To Do In Under 10 Minutes
- Sign up to receive regular email updates from the Gen Squeeze Campaign.
- Start a conversation about Gen Squeeze at your dinner table, workplace, gym or the bar – wherever you gather with friends and family
- Share our 3 minute video.
- Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, Subscribe to our Youtube channel,Follow us on Pinterest
- Share some of your own story on our Facebook page
- Tweet one of our 15 Fast Facts
- Feature one of our Infographics on your Facebook page, on Twitter and in emails to your friends and family
- Contact the editor of your local paper and ask them to do a story about Gen Squeeze
- Send us (to info@gensqueeze.ca) any photos or images that reflect your experience of the Squeeze, confirming permission for us to use these images in our social media
- Team up – many hands make light work, and they make it more fun. Contact us if you’d like to connect with others who want to work as a group on this campaign
Find out more about the team that makes this program.
