Young People Driving Social Change through the Ballot Box and Beyond Northern California Grantmakers Briefing 2/21/19
Agenda & Presenters Jidan Terry-Koon Tessa Callejo Fred Blackwell WELCOME & OPEN Senior Program Senior Program CEO Officer Officer 10:00 – 10:15 AM SFF SFF SFF SFF – Fred Blackwell Opening Moderator Moderator PANEL 10:15 – 11:10 AM Jamileh Ebrahimi Luis Sanchez Power CA, RYSE Youth Center, YO! Cali, TCE Youth Organizing Co-Executive Director Director BREAKOUT SESSION RYSE Youth Center Power California 11:10 – 11:40 AM Panelist Panelist Youth Leaders BIG CIRCLE REFLECTION J Ishida Albert Maldonado David Kim Senior Strategy 11:40 – 12:05 PM Senior Program Program Director Manager Associate Youth Organize! The California CLOSING SFF California Endowment 12:05 – 12:15 PM Moderator Panelist Panelist SFF & TCE
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
Youth in California Across seven Central Valley and Coastal counties, MORE THAN TWO IN THREE people under age 25 are Latinx. CA: 5 th Largest Black Population in US 95% of CA Latinx youth Over 900,000 Black youth were born in the US under the age of 25
Youth Driving Social Change Briefing Thursday, February 21 st , 2019 Presented by Jamileh Ebrahimi, Youth Organizing Director
Youth Leadership ◆ Opened Fall 2008 ◆ Born out of youth organizing, youth- Youth Organizing adult partnership, and cross-sector collaboration ◆ Integrative Programming ◆ Multiple points of entry and Media, Education engagement Arts, & & Justice Culture ◆ To date, almost 4000 members Community Health ◆ Direct Services ◆ Community Education ◆ Advocacy ◆ Systems Change
Youth Organizing Department Cohorts & Leadership Pipeline Leadership & Political Emerging and advanced youth leaders & Development organizers who lead campaigns & receives Youth engage in a process of collective trainings that build their collective understanding themselves, their skills, knowledge, power, & capacities to be identities, and experiences as able to advocate for change for individuals and build the skills to themselves at school and in their Insert Text Insert Text connect with and participate in Community all while being Organizing & Here Here collective struggles to build supported 1:1 with holistic advocating power and make change. supports. for a better Policy & Advocacy Community Building & future. Campaigns Coalitions Youth, residents and community partners lead campaigns that support them and Leading and participating in coalitions Insert Text their families by shifting power and focused on systems change, building Here developing and advocating for policies power and elevating youth voice. that transform their schools and communities.
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 outcomes 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 RYSE Commons – ground breaking Summer 2019 Flexibility for quick pivots Organizations rooted in the community
Thank you RYSE Center 205 41 st St Jamileh Ebrahimi Youth Organizing Director Richmond, Ca Jamileh@rysecenter.org RYSECenter.org (510) 374-3401 Social Media: @ryseyouthcenter The future of our city is in the hands of our youth
Bay Area Youth Organizing Year-round organizing and infrastructure builds power and scale J. Ishida Californians for Justice & YO! California Senior Strategy Director
California’s relatively Discussion progressive landscape is no mistake, nor a function of demography as destiny. Rather, it’s been hard won through long-term movement building of communities of color and investments in movement infrastructure. - Dr. Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
Bay Area Youth Organizing Arab Resource and Organizing Genders & Sexualities Alliance Center Network Alliance of South Asians Taking Hip Hop for Change Action Justice for Oakland Students Asian Youth Promoting Advocacy Oakland Kids First and Leadership Oakland Rising Bay Peace PODER Bay Rising Power California Black Organizing Project RYSE Brown Boi Project SF Rising Californians for Justice Urban Peace Movement Communities for a Better Urban Tilth Environment Youth Together Chinese Progressive Association Youth United for Community Communities United for Action Restorative Youth Justice * Partial list of youth organizing groups from initial MSC YO scan
Bay Area Youth Organizing Infrastructure Building 1. Cultivate Youth Leaders and For more info about Relationship Centered Build Organizational Capacity Schools contact ______@caljustice.org 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 organizations 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
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