Organizing: What is it and what do we mean?

A lot of the work that we see in our community fits into 2 categories:

Direct service

Meaning, people need food and so we have a food bank or people don't have housing so we have a shelter. Don't get us wrong- this work is super important! We need it in our community in order for people to be able to survive capitalism, racism, and other forms of oppression. Our work is about asking the question- why don't people have food? Could it be because they make minimum wage and that's not enough to cover basic bills? Then that's the root of the problem and let's fix that.

Individual advocacy

Advocating, either through a legal avenue or not, for one student to have their rights met or one family to not be discriminated against. Again, this work is essential! We need advocates and lawyers to help people defend their rights.

But our work is different- it is about collective action to solve systemic problems. We don't want to make life easier for one young person or one family. We want to go right down to the root of the problem and fix the system so that no more youth and families have that problem! And we believe that the people who have lived the problem are experts on it and need to help define what the solution could be.......and lead the charge to make that change happen.

We Do this By......Organizing!

Organizing is the tool we use to bring people together and build power. It is the key to our work because it is the most effective tool we have for youth to build power and successfully make the changes they want in their schools and their community. It is a way of figuring out solutions to our problems. A central point of organizing is action. The power is in that quantity of people coming together, taking action together, and not giving up until the solutions are realized and put into place.

Our Campaigns

We run campaigns on issues that are important to our constituents- young people of color, many of whom are also working class, and/or immigrant, and/or LGBT, and/or undocumented. Thus far, our campaigns have focused on educational justice issues, especially issues of school pushout and the school to prison pipeline.

Victories

In 2012 won the first half of the We Want to Graduate Campaign, which focused on credit loss due to absences and tardies. After 2 years of hard work that included doing our own research to learn more about the issue and how many students are affected, that included hours of meetings with decision-makers, that included talking to hundreds of students on the issue, the New London Board of Education finally voted to revise the district Attendance Policy. The new policy has supports and interventions for students who are absent, rather than punishments. It also has a warning system in place so that students know they are at risk of losing credit because of absences. The revised high school handbook has a detailed section on how to appeal credit lost due to absences. The information is also now on the high school website so that it's easier for students and families to access and learn about.

Organizing: What is it and what do we mean?

Direct service

Individual advocacy

Our Campaigns

Victories

Read more about our campaigns:

HEaring youth voices

#DefendBlackLife #CARENOTCOPS #INVESTINCOMMUNITY #FEDUPNL #SPEAKUPNL #STWFU#SAFETYFORALL