The last few years have seen a remarkable wave of student mobilization. Young people walked out of class to protest inaction on gun violence. Tens of thousands of students skipped class to strike to fight the climate emergency. Research shows Generation Z is the most diverse and progressive in United States history, and turnout of college-aged voters doubled during 2018 midterm elections. The momentum is exhilarating and inspiring. But it’s also felt more acutely in certain areas of the country.

In other pockets of America that may not frequently make the news, or where the same candidates have been elected and reelected for years, student activists are tasked with a complex challenge: motivating fellow young voters or future voters who feel like their voices don’t matter.

“Those large-scale protests haven’t reached with my community yet,” 16-year-old Sydney Ward, founder of Project 320, which connects Utah students to their local and state representatives, tells Teen Vogue. Citing widespread movements like March for Our Lives and Fridays for Future as examples of visible youth activism, Sydney points out that “the reality is the majority of young people still don’t see where they fit into that equation.”

Sydney is trying to counter that apathy by doing the grunt work to engage students in local politics. She hopes to underscore how state races impact the laws that get passed by state legislatures and advocates for engaging with local government even if the issues they tackle often “aren’t as high-profile or trendy.” Sydney explains that while a tax amendment might sound boring at the outset, when students find out that amendment could give their school more funding for the art department, they might be more interested in lobbying their representative for it. “Creating opportunities for young people to get to know their elected representatives at every level is key,” she tells Teen Vogue.

To that end, Sydney works to encourage young people to see themselves represented in their local political system (she points out that voter turnout rates in her home state, which is primarily red, look good because of older voters). That includes programming focusing on voter registration and mock elections, in addition to compiling city council candidate platforms for voters.

A few months ago, Sydney says, she organized a town hall with students at her high school and their state representatives. “Getting my peers to care enough to attend was the hardest part,” she explains. “But once young people started talking about issues and realizing there were people who were representing them and not just their parents, they were much more willing to listen.”

What gives the work of youth activists in politically disengaged or homogenous areas a crucial edge is empathy. They are well aware of the circumstances and dynamics that prompt young adults to feel their votes, time, or attention don’t ultimately have an impact. “Come to my town and tell a young person working 40 hours a week for $7.25 an hour, going to school, and supporting their family that they need to be more politically involved,” says Will Powers, an 18-year-old Kentuckian who has worked with various student nonprofits and cofounded Student Alliance for Mental Health Innovation and Action. Will explains his county is a Republican stronghold, so even when young people buck the local trend and vote Democratic, they feel it makes little difference

Inadequate resources and funding for get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration issues, and lack of knowledge are all cited as significant reasons for voter disengagement; a 2018 survey by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) found that nearly 20% of working-class young people don’t believe they know enough to vote.