Young People Driving Social Change through the Ballot Box and Beyond - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Young People Driving Social Change through the Ballot Box and Beyond

Northern California Grantmakers Briefing 2/21/19

Agenda & Presenters

WELCOME & OPEN

10:00 – 10:15 AM SFF – Fred Blackwell

PANEL

10:15 – 11:10 AM Power CA, RYSE Youth Center, YO! Cali, TCE

BREAKOUT SESSION

11:10 – 11:40 AM Youth Leaders

BIG CIRCLE REFLECTION

11:40 – 12:05 PM

CLOSING

12:05 – 12:15 PM SFF & TCE Fred Blackwell CEO SFF Opening Jidan Terry-Koon Senior Program Officer SFF Moderator Tessa Callejo Senior Program Officer SFF Moderator Albert Maldonado Senior Program Manager The California Endowment Panelist Jamileh Ebrahimi Youth Organizing Director RYSE Youth Center Panelist J Ishida Senior Strategy Director Youth Organize! California Panelist Luis Sanchez Co-Executive Director Power California Panelist David Kim Program Associate SFF Moderator

FROM THE STREETS TO THE POLLS

“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”

• Coretta Scott King

❖ Lower the voting age to 16 years old to expand electorate to millions of youth ❖ Mobilize & turnout 300,000 young voters of color to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election making up 5% of voting electorate ❖ Build youth of color leadership pipeline that trains 1,000s of civic engagement organizers ❖ Work to pass progressive propositions and legislation that impact young people of color ❖ Shift the way young people of color are positioned and valued as decision makers to shift power to our communities

CA: 5th Largest Black Population in US

Over 900,000 Black youth under the age of 25

Across seven Central Valley and Coastal counties, MORE THAN

TWO IN THREE people

under age 25 are Latinx.

95% of CA Latinx youth

were born in the US

Youth in California

Youth Driving Social Change Briefing

Thursday, February 21st, 2019

Presented by Jamileh Ebrahimi, Youth Organizing Director

◆ Opened Fall 2008 ◆ Born out of youth organizing, youth-

adult partnership, and cross-sector collaboration

◆ Integrative Programming ◆ Multiple points of entry and

engagement

◆ To date, almost 4000 members

◆ Direct Services ◆ Community Education ◆ Advocacy ◆ Systems Change

Youth Organizing Education & Justice Community Health Media, Arts, & Culture

Youth Leadership

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Organizing & advocating for a better future. Leadership & Political Development Policy & Advocacy Campaigns Community Building & Coalitions Cohorts & Leadership Pipeline

Youth engage in a process of understanding themselves, their identities, and experiences as individuals and build the skills to connect with and participate in collective struggles to build power and make change. Emerging and advanced youth leaders &

• rganizers who lead campaigns & receives

collective trainings that build their collective skills, knowledge, power, & capacities to be able to advocate for change for themselves at school and in their Community all while being supported 1:1 with holistic supports. Youth, residents and community partners lead campaigns that support them and their families by shifting power and developing and advocating for policies that transform their schools and communities. Leading and participating in coalitions focused on systems change, building power and elevating youth voice.

Youth Organizing Department

Kids First Richmond Initiative

3 Ballot Initiatives – 1 Campaign:  MEASURE E: Secure 3 percent of the City of Richmond’s general budget for dedicated funding stream for children and youth services.  MEASURE K: Charter amendment revising Kids First  Measure H: Progressive Real Estate Transfer Tax on Luxury Properties over $1m Goals of the Fund

1. To ensure that Richmond’s children, youth and young adults are physically, emotionally, mentally and socially healthy, educated, successful in school, and live in stable, safe and supported families and communities; 2. To increase safety for children, youth, young adults, their parents/guardians, families and the communities in which they live by preventing problems and enhancing the strengths of children, youth, young adults and their families; 3. To ensure young people are provided with gender-responsive, trauma-informed, population-specific and culturally-competent services; 4. To strengthen collaboration among public agencies and community-based organizations around shared

• utcomes among all service providers for children, youth, young adults and their parents/guardians;

5. To ensure an equitable distribution of resources to all of Richmond’s young people in recognition of the importance of investment in their futures from birth through young adulthood; 6. To fill gaps in services and leverage other resources whenever feasible.

Process Matters

 Build a shared vision for the needs and priorities of children and youth in Richmond.  Continue to build productive collaborations across community-based services, community institutions and public agencies.  Increase voter registration and turnout for Richmond residents ages 18-34.  Inspire and improve civic engagement skills of young people.  Create more responsiveness and accountability of government to young people.  Engage new funders and funding sources for children, youth and families in Richmond.  Grounded in racial justice and equity.

Get Out the Vote!

Youth Voice & Leadership:  Leadership & campaign organizing training  Youth Voter and Civic Engagement  Meaningful Leadership Roles – a seat at the table  Trainings and support for youth-centered service providers  Leadership Pipeline in action Campaign and Voter Engagement: ✓ Signature Gathering – 12,000 collected in 2016 for Kids First ✓ Voter Registration (peer-to-peer) ✓ Phone & text banking ✓ Door-to-door canvassing (majority youth, resident and parent-led) ✓ Media & communications ✓ Event planning and community education

What does it take?

 Long lens – legacy building  Listen and engage youth from the start  Long-term investment  Supporting youth holistically  Relationships & partnerships (RKF → KFR)  Space, support and trust for risk-taking  Local → regional → statewide power and capacity building  Training/TA supports  Funders leaning into c-4/lobbying  Flexibility for quick pivots  Organizations rooted in the community

RYSE Commons – ground breaking Summer 2019

Thank you

RYSE Center 205 41st St Richmond, Ca RYSECenter.org (510) 374-3401 Social Media: @ryseyouthcenter The future of our city is in the hands of our youth

Jamileh Ebrahimi Youth Organizing Director Jamileh@rysecenter.org

Bay Area Youth Organizing

• J. Ishida

Californians for Justice & YO! California Senior Strategy Director

Year-round organizing and infrastructure builds power and scale

Discussion

California’s relatively progressive landscape is no mistake, nor a function of demography as destiny. Rather, it’s been hard won through long-term movement building

• f communities of color and

investments in movement infrastructure.

• Dr. Manuel Pastor, University of Southern

California

Arab Resource and Organizing Center Alliance of South Asians Taking Action Asian Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership Bay Peace Bay Rising Black Organizing Project Brown Boi Project Californians for Justice Communities for a Better Environment Chinese Progressive Association Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network Hip Hop for Change Justice for Oakland Students Oakland Kids First Oakland Rising PODER Power California RYSE SF Rising Urban Peace Movement Urban Tilth Youth Together Youth United for Community Action

Bay Area Youth Organizing

* Partial list of youth organizing groups from initial MSC YO scan

For more info about Relationship Centered Schools contact ______@caljustice.org

Bay Area Youth Organizing Infrastructure Building

• 1. Cultivate Youth Leaders and

Build Organizational Capacity

• 2. Sharpen Key Strategies for

Change

• 3. Build a Bigger We
• 4. Resource the Work

Cultivate Youth Leaders and Build Organizational Capacity

• Invest in leadership pathways for

youth and staff

• Support the time and space
• rganizations need to build

capacity

“For the generation politicized by BLM, and Occupy, with accessibility through social media - a certain level of spontaneity and movement moments emerge that cannot be orchestrated, but there are also some common, long-term supports that we need to provide for youth leadership and youth movement infrastructure.” - Bay Peace Staff

Sharpen Key Strategies for Change

• Accelerate cultural strategy and

narrative work

• Deepen integrated voter engagement
• Create healing centered organizing

models

“Hiring folks who are formerly incarcerated, we still need to heal their traumas over time. The Cinderella Organizer story is not real -- it is a lifetime commitment to growth that is often ignored and

• neglected. People are struggling with mental,

emotional and physical traumas that emerge even through the healing practices…” - CURYJ Staff

Build a Bigger We

• Invest in displaced families through
• uter Bay Area infrastructure and

capacity building

• Increase cross-regional and cross-

issue organizing through networks and movement building spaces

“It is critical to build relationships across and within networks of youth organizations. This offers

• pportunities to practice and model relationships

rooted in trust building, respect, community and healing (for adults and mentors).” - GSAN Staff

Resource the Work

• Creative fundraising and ways to

leverage capital for community assets

• Education among other funders
• More unrestricted and flexible funds

“We need to fund youth organizing in the Bay Area, especially in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and the East Bay where there are a number of high-wealth family funds. We need our foundations to be champions for youth organizing and activate their networks to invest in building the field. Be our advocates and create new funding opportunities for

• ur innovative work. Be cultural translators of our

impact in civic engagement, leadership and

• rganizing.” - Californians for Justice Staff

breakout session w/ changemakers & activists

JAHIEM ‘GEO’ JONES RYSE Youth Center Richmond Youth Organizing Team Fellow JASMINE DELADFOSSE The California Endowment Youth Organizer ESMERALDA CASTRO Power California LA Campus Coordinator NAUDIKA WILLIAMS Youth Organize! California YO! Cali Trainer