Content Festivals
Our Community, Our Power, Our Vote, Content Festival
Voting matters, and yet we also know that democracy does not abide by a four-year cycle. Democracy is something we must practice and fight for every
Whether we’re casting a ballot, organizing our neighbors, showing up at a protest, supporting mutual aid, advocating for policy change, or caring for our communities, each action helps shape the future we want to see realized.
Yet participation isn’t equally accessible. Millions of people—including many undocumented immigrants and people impacted by the criminal (in)justice system—face legal barriers to voting. Additionally, historically disenfranchised groups face systemic barriers that work to silences their voice, from voter ID laws to gerrymandering. When young people come into view, particularly those who are LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC, a new challenge surfaces — the question of whether electoral politics is even worth it at all, as is consistently fails to reflect their needs or values.
This National Voter Registration Day, we’re expanding the conversation. This festival invites creators to explore what civic engagement means to them, why voting matters (or doesn’t), how communities build power beyond elections, and what a more inclusive democracy could look like. Because our communities deserve more than one day of participation.
As we explores the many ways we participate in shaping our communities—and how our different paths contribute to a stronger democracy, “Our Community. Our Power. Our Vote” remind us that our vote is cannot exist in isolation, but must be paired with a steadfast commitment to build power within our communities.
SexEd4All Fest
Now more than ever, young people deserve sexual education that is destigmatizing, inclusive, and does not treat the LGBTQIA+ community as an aside. That’s why URGE launched our 2025 #SexEdForAll Fest – we wanted a space where young people from across the country could use their creativity to imagine a world where all young people, regardless of their gender or sexual identity, can feel seen and heard when learning about sexual wellness and pleasure.
SexEd4All Fest 2025
SMA Fest
For many, self-managed abortion (SMA) with pills is the most accessible and empowering option to end a pregnancy. It gives us the freedom to decide where and when we have our abortions and who we want to support us. SMA Fest serves as a platform for creative young people from across the country to come together to share how self-managed abortion supports their power and autonomy.
Below you can find a compilation of all of the amazing content from this event:
SMA Fest 2026
This year’s theme invited storytellers to submit digital content proposals for funding that reclaim abortion in all its vastness – beyond binaries, beyond stigma, and beyond the fear of how it will be distorted by extremists.
Free the Pill Fest
Through visual art, video, poetry, and other creative forms of educating and storytelling, young content creators shared why having an over-the-counter birth control pill is a form of reproductive freedom.
URGE has long been a member of the Free the Pill coalition, an initiative housed at Ibis Reproductive Health to advocate for OTC oral contraceptives. URGE’s #FreeThePillFest is a weeklong content festival geared towards young people in URGE’s investment states – Alabama, California, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas – generously supported by a grant from Advocates for Youth.
Below you can find a compilation of all of the amazing content from this event:
Free the Pill Fest 2024
For Free the Pill Fest 2024, young people from across the country took a victory lap after the FDA approved over-the-counter birth control pills (Opill) in July 2023.
