Note: The field of youth organizing is dynamic, with new
groups emerging regularly and existing groups often forging fresh
alliances, sometimes with new names. As such, this list falls short
of being definitive and complete. Nor does it intend to capture
the many youth groups engaged in organizing around issues other
than school reform, critical issues like juvenile or environmental
justice, community renewal, poverty. But for those looking for the
lay of the land, this list should offer a good starting point.
We are indebted to the Freechild
Project and soundout.org
for their work in collecting many of the listings that we have reproduced
below.
Boston-area
Youth Organizing Project (Boston, MA)
http://www.byop.org/
Started six years ago, BYOP organizes high school students across
the Boston metropolitan areas. With chapters in some 22 high schools
from suburbs to inner city, BYOP has worked to improve student-teacher
relations and clean up school facilities, as well as lobbied in
the community to reopen recreational facilities and extend the hours
of public transportation passes. It recently hosted a meeting on
school accountability that drew 350 people, including Boston’s
school superintendent, school committee members, and the city’s
school facilities director. BYOP is sponsored by City Mission Society
and is partnered with Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.
Californians
for Justice Education Fund
http://www.caljustice.org/
Californians for Justice is a seven-year-old statewide grassroots
organization that brings together youth and adults pushed to the
margins of the political process. Its Campaign for Quality Education
targets a wide range of issues including tracking and disciplinary
policies that funnel students towards the juvenile justice system
instead of college, teacher quality, and bilingual instruction.
In a new report, First Things First, CFJ documents the unintended
negative consequences of California’s High School Exit Exam.
CFJ engages youth through student-led high school teams, summer
leadership academies, student “know your rights” trainings,
and skill building in media and policy work.
Chicago Youth United (Chicago, IL)
Chicago Youth United, a coalition of Chicago organizations, works
to change policies and fight for more resources for young people
across the city. School security has been a top concern, and the
group has lobbied for increased training for security guards and
a system that allows students to anonymously report security concerns.
Citizens
for Quality Education/Southern Echo (Jackson, MS)
http://www.southernecho.org/
Citizens for Quality Education began its work to improve the education
afforded public school students in Holmes County in 1996. Through
CQE, parents and students work together to hold the school board
accountable for improving the performance of the schools in the
district. They have fought for and won revision of the district's
disciplinary policies, created an after-school math enrichment program,
and published the Schoolhouse 2 Jailhouse report that sheds
light on the “mis-education and criminalization” of youth
in Holmes County. CQE is currently working with the district on
a dropout prevention plan that addresses the issues highlighted
in Schoolhouse 2 Jailhouse.
Indianola Parent Student Group (Indianola,
MS)
The Indianola Parent Student Group was born in 1999 when the
school superintendent closed down a promising program, the Math
Games League, which had sparked interest in math among African-American
students and their parents. The group overturned his decision, restored
the program, and decided to establish a sustained effort to ensure
community accountability from school and public officials. In recent
years, IPSG has earned several major victories, including the Indianola
School Board’s agreement to approve construction of two science
labs and provide up-to-date science texts for students.
Kids
First (Oakland, CA)
www.kidsfirstoakland.org
Kids First is a multiracial organization working to create opportunities
for Oakland youth to become leaders in transforming their schools
and community. In 1996, Kids First drafted, qualified, and successfully
passed the Measure K ballot initiative, which requires the city
to set-aside $72 million in additional funds for youth programs
over twelve years. In 2001, it organized a citywide protest of high-stakes
testing in the Oakland Unified School, demanding equitable funding
based on need rather than test scores. In 2002, Kids First united
with other youth groups to design and secure a two-year, two million
dollar pilot program that provides free bus passes to students who
qualify for the school free-lunch program and a discounted pass
of $15 per month for all other students. Current campaigns focus
on school suspension policies, teacher quality, and the recent state
takeover of the Oakland public schools.
Make
the Road by Walking (Brooklyn, NY)
http://www.maketheroad.org/
Make the Road by Walking is a not-for-profit, membership-led organization
based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, composed mostly of low-income Latino
and African-American residents. Its Youth Power Project encourages
community youth, aged 5-19, to become leaders in their neighborhood
and activists in their schools. Make the Road by Walking youth have
also written and read personal commentaries for the award winning
“Radio Rookies” produced by NYC public radio.
Philadelphia
Students Union (Philadelphia, PA)
http://www.phillystudentunion.org/
Blending community organizing and leadership development, the Philadelphia
Student Union (PSU) organizes and trains students at five public
high schools across the city. It has worked with teachers to fight
declining school budgets, improve inadequate facilities, and challenge
privatization in the Philadelphia Public Schools. Most recently,
PSU has provided critical input on a new district plan to create
smaller, specialized high schools. Responding to the district’s
call for student input, PSU surveyed 1,042 students and found that
the three top issues that students wanted addressed were: creation
of a multicultural and engaging curriculum; greater student involvement
in school governance; and more guidance counselors. It also called
for multiservice centers in schools that could provide services
such as peer mediation and help with various other school-based
and personal problems.
Power
to the Youth
http://www.youthpower.net/who.html
Power to the Youth is a nationwide organization advocating increased
student participation in improving schools and communities. The
website includes a discussion board, an online newsletter called
Speak Up, and tools and resources for student involvement
in reform efforts (e.g., downloadable flyers, surveys, school report
card forms, petitions).
Seattle Young
People's Project (Seattle, WA)
http://www.sypp.org/
SYPP encourages and supports youth-led projects for social change.
Its youth members, all under 19, vote on proposed projects that
other young people introduce. Once a project passes a vote of SYPP's
membership, it becomes an officially sponsored "initiative." Since
1992, young people at SYPP have arranged speaking engagements, held
teen forums, met with teachers, administrators and politicians,
posted flyers, held phone banks, coordinated conferences, led rallies,
organized press conferences and published newspapers and "zines.”
Recently, SYPP planned and led five youth conferences on education
reform attended by more than 450 young people; organized students
and won acceptance for "Student Input Forms"- teacher evaluations
- at a local, public high school; and led a youth rally to call
for a multicultural curriculum in Seattle's schools.
Sistas
and Brothas United (Bronx, NY)
http://www.nwbccc.org/
Sistas and Brothas United (SBU), a local affiliate of the Northwest
Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, involves local teenagers in
community action in the Northwest Bronx. Some of SBU’s recent
education initiatives include: school facilities campaigns that
brought about substantial improvements in facilities and resources
at several neighborhood high schools; teacher and student surveys
and youth-initiated professional development aimed at improving
teacher quality in area high schools; a proposal for a new small
school called The Leadership Institute for Social Justice, partnering
with Fordham University and with a community action theme.
Sound Out/Freechild
Project
http://soundout.org/
A new campaign from the Freechild Project—a group of youth
advocates working to grow democracy through youth engagement, based
in Olympia, Washington—Sound Out believes students should be
leaders in efforts to change and improve their schools. It calls
on schools around the country to engage students—the primary
stakeholders in education—in learning, teaching, and decision-making
throughout the system, and it calls on students to take up this
challenge. Through a variety of online materials, Sound Out hopes
to give students the knowledge, examples, and evidence they need
to be responsible activists in their schools and to promote a national
dialogue across youth groups organizing for education change.
South Central
Youth Empowered through Action/The Community Coalition
(Los Angeles, CA)
http://www.ccsapt.org/
South Central Youth Empowered through Action has recently organized
chapters in six high schools in South Central Los Angeles with the
aim of increasing the number of students who graduate from high
school and are prepared to attend college. SCYEA offers an eight-week,
summer political education training for youth. It has also launched
a campaign to hold schools accountable for A-G course requirements
(the course sequence required for entrance into the University of
California).
Student Activist Alliance (Portland,
OR)
The newly created Student Activist Alliance aims to empower students
in Portland, Oregon and the surrounding counties. Following massive
budget cuts, the SAA staged a district-wide student walkout that
gained national attention, plus helped organize community education
for needy students during the days lost to budget cuts. The SAA
is not only involved in the Portland-Metro community, but also organizes
students hoping to make a difference across the Northwest.
Student
Advocates for Freedom and Equality (New Hampshire)
http://www.safeaction.org/
SAFE is a student-led organization that supports several education
reform platforms, including: an official list of Student Rights
displayed in every school where it can easily be seen by the students
and administration; heterogeneous grouping and an end to tracking;
student representation, with full voting rights, on school boards.
Students
Against Testing
http://www.nomoretests.com
Students Against Testing is a nationwide network of young people
who resist high stakes standardized testing and support real-life
learning. The website spells out the group’s 10 reasons for
opposing standardized testing and details action students and others
can take. The site also offers downloadable fact sheets and flyers,
order forms for free bumper stickers, and an extensive set of links
to pertinent research, articles, resources, and organizations.
Students
4 Justice/Colorado Progressive Coalition (Denver, CO)
http://www.progressivecoalition.org/body.htm
Students 4 Justice, the youth-led youth organizing arm of Colorado
Progressive Coalition, works in three of Denver’s public high
schools, fighting for greater public school accountability and student
voice. In August 2001 the group released a special report, On
the Outside Looking In: Racial Tracking at Denver’s East High
School, that documented the uneven access to accelerated and
advanced placement (AP) classes and college counseling at this large,
racially mixed high school.
Tunica Teens in Action/Concerned Citizens
for a Better Tunica County (Tunica, MS)
Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County, an affiliate of Southern
Echo, is an inter-generational group that organizes and educates
the community in which it is rooted about issues of inequity and
injustice. Tunica Teens in Action is the youth leadership component
of Concerned Citizens For A Better Tunica County, formed in July
1999 by young people who realized they needed to develop their skills
to help the community and themselves to succeed in a school system
that has been on academic probation for over ten years.
Youth in Action (Providence, RI)
Founded in 1999 by a senior at Providence’s innovative Met
School, Youth in Action is a youth-driven organization aimed at
empowering young people to develop and implement programs that improve
the community, schools, and the lives of teens. Past campaigns have
revolved around HIV education and environmental justice, as well
as using the arts to express youth voice. Youth in Action’s
current agenda includes youth philanthropy and school reform. Several
members sit on a youth advisory committee started by Providence’s
new mayor.
Youth
Making a Change/Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth
(San Francisco, CA)
http://www.colemanadvocates.org
Since 1999, Coleman Advocates’ Youth Making a Change (YMAC)
has waged a determined campaign to carve a decision-making role
for students in the San Francisco public schools. YMAC victories
include a second student delegate seat to the school board elected
by the general student body, the creation of school-based health
clinics in all seven of the district's major high schools, and a
district policy that restricts police interaction with students
on school campuses. Current projects include a new district-wide
discipline policy that would reduce suspension, expulsion and arrest
rates, particularly among African American and Latino students.
YMAC’s annual student survey, completed by over 5,000 San Francisco
high school students each year, provides a valuable window into
the issues that most concern the city’s youth.
Youth
Organizing Communities (California)
http://www.innercitystruggle.org
Youth Organizing Communities (YOC) is a youth-driven organization
fighting for educational justice, drawing a strong connection between
educational injustices and California's criminalization of youth.
In calling for schools not jails, YOC organizes students around
the demand that "education is a human right." Its Los Angeles chapter
operates a "strike school," a four-month series of workshops at
two East Los Angeles high schools about the fundamentals of community
organizing, along with an annual media camp. YOC’s San Diego
chapter is currently spearheading a campaign at three low-performing
high schools to implement ethnic studies classes, create educational
priority zones for failing schools, and facilitate summer leadership
institutes for students.
Youth
Together (San Francisco Bay Area)
http://www.youthtogether.net/
Youth Together (YT) was formed in 1996 as a community-based response
to increased inter-racial conflicts and violence in a number of
San Francisco Bay Area schools. At six high schools in Oakland,
Berkeley, and Richmond, YT works with youth to promote multiracial
justice, peace and unity—and nonviolent solutions to conflict.
Over the last few years, YT has expanded its work in response to
needs-assessments identifying problems and proposed solutions. At
Berkeley, Castlemont and Skyline High Schools, for example, students
called for a comprehensive plan to bring more resources into the
school that would be housed in Student Centers on campus. YT has
spearheaded One Land, One People (OLOP) school/community collaboratives
in Richmond and at Castlemont and Skyline High Schools to organize
and convene stakeholders within the school community to join forces
around its youth-led vision for change.
Youth
Working for Positive Change/Citizens for Community Improvement of
Iowa
http://www.iowacci.org/ywpc/ywpc.htm
For six years Youth Working for Positive Change (YWPC), the youth
component of Citizens Community Improvement of Iowa, has tackled
community problems of interest to young people. Recently, YWPC formed
a task force to address selected education issues. It is campaigning
for a state scholarship program for moderate to low-income youth,
that would not be based on grades and athletic achievements, but
on how much work and dedication a young person has put back into
their community. YWPC members are also studying and recommending
changes in college counseling in area high schools.
Youth
United for Change/Eastern Philadelphia Organizing Project
(Philadelphia, PA)
http://www.epopleaders.org/youth.html
YUC is a youth-led organization committed to organizing low-income
teenagers through chapters in three Philadelphia high schools. The
chapters provide students the opportunity to take on leadership
roles and become stronger participants in the overall school community.
For the past two years, for example, YUC has worked intensely with
the principal at Kensington High School to increase the number of
students prepared for college and help raise graduation rates. YUC
members recently prepared and presented to Philadelphia’s new
mayor an education platform they called "Education is a right, not
a privilege." It called for free transportation to and from school
for students who cannot afford the $9 weekly bus pass; more co-ops,
internships and after school programs; updating books and computer
access in school and community libraries; improved security measures
to secure student safety to, from, and in school; class-size reductions;
and increasing academic standards in neighborhood high schools.
>> Back to Youth Organizing Introduction
See also:
Sistas and Brothas United (Bronx, NY)
Youth Organizing Communities (East
Los Angeles, CA)
Interview with veteran youth organizer
Kim McGillicuddy
Youth organizing occasional
paper series
