It was very clear to me in 1965 in Mississippi that as a lawyer I could get people into schools desegregate the schools but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't have food didn't have jobs didn't have health care didn't have the means to exercise those civil rights we were not going to have success.
If you can get a teen leader in each sector of a student population you can pull people in. Everybody wants to get involved but most are too afraid. When they see a person they think is cool leading it they're first to join.