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Presidential 2016: What America Forward Is Eager To Hear In the Final Presidential Debate

The following post was written by Juanita Tolliver, Manager at America Forward

With 22 days until Election Day, the Presidential nominees are preparing for their third and final debate on Wednesday, October 19, at 9 pm EST. Like many Americans across the country, the America Forward team, is gearing up for the final opportunity to hear directly from Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump about their visions for our nation.

Since the Presidential Debates began, America Forward has been tuning in to understand the nominees’ policy ideas related to workforce development, education, youth development, and poverty alleviation. While we’ve heard only a few points from the nominees about these topics during the previous two debates, we are hopeful that the final debate will provide clarity and insight about the nominees’ specific policy ideas in each of these areas.

In addition to the debates, America Forward has facilitated a parallel dialogue about these topics through roundtable discussions, policy briefings, and a series of Twitter Town Halls. Our most recent Twitter Town Hall about workforce development, job skills and credentials, featured a panel of policy, post-secondary, business, and nonprofit leaders, and the discussion focused largely on the challenges facing struggling Americans and the community, institutional, and policy solutions that are helping them succeed in today’s economy. At the conclusion of the town hall, we asked the participants what they would ask Clinton and Trump at the next debate, and here’s what our panelists said:

These questions from our America Forward Coalition of social innovators and network partner organizations raise a number of the themes that we are working to tackle at America Forward. Even after the debates wrap up and the election results are in, America Forward will continue to engage senior policy staffers with both the Clinton and Trump campaigns in briefings and discussions about policy ideas that build on the outcomes-driven community solutions developed and delivered by America Forward Coalition organizations and nonprofits every day across the country.

Whether it is creating a White House Office of Nonprofit and Community Solutions to scale local solutions into national impact, creating a Community Solutions Tax Credits to incentivize and stimulate private sector investments in proven community solutions, or incorporating a Pay for Results approach into Federal decision-making, the next President has the opportunity to lift up innovative solutions and harness the power of social innovation.

Click here to learn more about our policy ideas for the next President, and read more about how social innovators in the America Forward Coalition are solving America’s biggest problems in communities across the country every day in our Presidential briefing book, Moving America Forward: Innovators Lead the Way to Unlocking America’s Potential. Join the conversation and follow @America_Forward and use #AFPresidential16 in your tweets.

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