CHARLOTTE -- With the help of a giant TV screen and innovative technology Thursday, college students and North Carolina politicians shared ideas about poverty, politics and the government's role in American society.

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards and former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer joined students at Raleigh's Wake Technical Community College and, via teleconference, groups at Charlotte's Central Piedmont and Morganton's Western Piedmont community colleges, for a single, hourlong question-and-answer session.

It was the state's first ever self-contained "Get Engaged iChat," an interactive brainchild of Generation Engage, a nonpartisan organization that attempts to make politics attractive to young voters.

"It's about using the social leverage of the local standouts to rally the troops," said Justin Rockefeller, a West Virginia senator's son and national program director of Generation Engage, who administered the gathering at Central Piedmont.

"We think all politics should start locally."

The small group at Central Piedmont -- community college students and faculty and students from other colleges -- seemed to agree, posing questions about local issues to Edwards and Fetzer.

"Charlotte's a big banking city," said Donald White, a copy editor at the Gaston Gazette who moved to Charlotte from Atlanta a few years ago. "How in a banking town, do you make sure (poor) people aren't left out?"

Edwards, a Democrat, said he believes everyone should have equal worth, meaning the rich and the poor should be willing to live with each other.

"We need both economic and racial integration," he said.

He compared Charlotte's poor citizens to New Orleans' after Hurricane Katrina.

"Why did poor people get hit the hardest by Katrina? They always get hit the hardest," he said. "They live on the edge of a razor every single day."

Edwards, who now serves as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he's encountered many poor families who violate stereotypes -- they are hardworking, and many are women.

He said the government should raise the minimum wage and otherwise "help them help themselves."

Fetzer, a Republican, said the societal divide could be closed by education more so than higher incomes.

During interviews with families living in Raleigh's public housing, Fetzer found that seven of 10 children there dropped out of school.

"The best way to control your own destiny is to prepare yourself," he said. He called on his audience to become teachers and mentors and make sure impoverished teenagers stayed in school.

The iChat Thursday was meant to foster debate and get young voters -- particularly 18- to 24-year-olds without four-year college experience -- excited about the government.

"It's a group of young people gathered to participate in a conversation about politics," Generation Engage State Chairman Courtney Crowder said.

Generation Engage was founded in Washington, D.C., in February as an alternative to traditional voter recruitment methods, Rockefeller said.

"There were groups going after college students with celebrity appeal and mass marketing," he said. "My friends and I believe a handshake is just as powerful as any of those techniques."

The organization has since expanded to offices in Washington, Richmond and Raleigh and has narrowed its target audience to "young workers, young people with families," Crowder said.

"It's important for everyone to be involved," he said. "This process is supposed to support all of us."

Generation Engage, with its iChat events, tries to get the ball rolling, said Adrian Talbott, executive director of the organization's Washington office.

"It promotes a genuinely new, innovative forum," he said. "Democracy's a dialogue, not a monologue. Also, we don't believe young people are disinterested in politics. It's a question of access, not interest."

Thursday's event was the first to take place solely in North Carolina and the second to include the state.

An iChat in October, based in a bar in Raleigh, a restaurant in Richmond and a Polo Ralph Lauren store in New York, featured former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meager, Virginia's gubernatorial candidates and Bill Clinton.

The effort has also rounded up an eclectic mix of supporters, including Coretta Scott King; U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; and British First Lady Cherie Blair.

"National political figures will keynote (iChats), but it actually generates local politics," Talbott said. "It's working. It's resonating."

Central Piedmont group members connected to those in Raleigh shortly after 11:30 a.m. and listened intently, sometimes laughing and sometimes shaking their heads in disagreement, as the politicians fielded questions.

One of the most complicated was from a student at Wake Tech: What is the real difference between Democrats and Republicans?

Edwards said he believed the opportunities available to him should be available to everyone. And that Republicans and Democrats were divided over "what individual responsibilities are and what we can do together."

Fetzer said there wasn't much difference in the way the parties were governed. He also said people shouldn't get caught up in rhetoric about which party cares more for people or which party is for the rich or the poor.

"Republicans and Democrats agree with what our government should (ultimately) be," he said. "We just differ on the paths to get there. This is a complex, complicated country."

But the way to navigate a tricky path is through intelligent debate, and rhetoric and stereotypes won't get citizens anywhere, he said.

Finally, both politicians offered students advice on how to make a political impact.

"Find an issue," Fetzer said. "Find a cause. Or just find a family who needs help. The key thing is to find something you care about."

Edwards agreed. "Find something to get involved in, and believe you can do something about it," he said.

Most of the participants at Central Piedmont Thursday said the iChat was a success.

"I thought it went great," said Mason Decamillis, a 19-year-old student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who is planning a career in politics.

But he said he would have liked Edwards and Fetzer to keep their answers shorter to allow more time for questions.

"They both got into politician mode and kept talking," he said.

Decamillis, who attended a charter high school in Raleigh, especially wanted to ask them about the best ways to fund charter schools.

Decamillis and other young voters across the country might soon have another chance to voice their concerns: Generation Engage is planning to expand nationwide.

"It's certainly an evolving situation," Crowder, the state chairman, said. "But we're encouraged by the participation. Everyone is excited about young people being excited about civics."

In the next few months, Crowder said he'd like his organization to reach a broader audience and host more iChats.

His most important goal, though, is simple: "To get more young people involved."