One of ACC’s newer clubs is the Street Advocates Student Coalition (SASC), started by junior Cody Finnegan. The SASC’s mission is “to bring students’ voices into the conversation over Arlington’s transportation future, advocating for a future in which streets are never hostile to students using any mode of transportation.” Cody decided to found this organization because they noticed that in the intense debates over Arlington’s future as a community, young voices were often conspicuously absent from the rooms in which many plans get shaped and policy decisions are made.

Teenagers often experience cities very differently than adults: many don’t have driver’s licenses, leaving them unable to move around freely in places with inadequate mobility options such as public transportation. Young people also have a particularly strong need for social spaces and safe gathering spots. When these perspectives are excluded from planning discussions—especially at a time when these issues are growing even more prominent in our psyche, due in part to climate change and the housing crisis—it leaves young people with a world unprepared to cater for their needs when they grow up and even worse for future generations of young people who are currently unable to advocate for themselves. Having completed their first project, a photography challenge showcasing examples of impactful streetscape design decisions throughout Arlington, members of the SASC are now turning their attention towards new ambitions: collaborating with the County to create more formal avenues for students to get involved and fix inadequate street design throughout Arlington.

We hope you will join us in this mission, and help make Arlington a better place for teenagers. To join the Discord server where we do most of our work, please fill out this form and we will reach out shortly: https://bit.ly/joinSASC