Seattle Young People's Project Programs
Our programming is structured as a Social Justice Leadership Pipeline (SJLP). The SJLP is a positive, tiered pathway that supports young people from their first experiences of organizing until beyond their teens, igniting their self-realization as change agents and sustaining their growth as activists in Seattle's communities and social justice movements. The pipeline is rooted in both youth-led and multigenerational organizing and skill-building projects that empower new generations of lifelong community activists.
The Summer Youth Organizing Institute (YO 1.0) is an 8-day youth activist training camp. This year 30 new youth were introduced to SYPP where they learned critical skills in social analysis, youth organizing, and undoing oppression. Previous YO 1.0 graduates lead the planning and provide much of the facilitation.
YO 1.0 graduates will have the opportunity to enter more advanced phases of training and internships: The YO 2.0 is an intermediate level after-school program that teaches higher level organizing, analysis, facilitation, and grassroots fundraising skills. Additionally, youth can develop their facilitation skills through Project Liberation; SYPP’s youth-led popular education program that provides social justice workshops to youth and adults across the Pacific Northwest.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
The Education Justice Campaign (EJC) begun by last year’s Youth Organizing Institute 2.0 (YO 2.0) organizers continues to move forward with the a new group of youth this year. Through the current YO 2.0, SYPP organizers are escalating the EJC through a video collage of youth experiences and research. Additional material includes a youth developed popular education workshop to breakdown the real cost of zero-tolerance policies in our education systems and its development of the school-to-prison pipeline. These video packages will be released beginning in February 2012.
The Justice for Youth Coalition is an intergenerational meeting that brings people who are challenging different components of the school to prison pipeline together with young people and their families. As we continue our EJC we value building a community support around the young people that are organizing against educational inequities. Currently involved are TeamChild, El Centro De La Raza’s Juvenile Justice Project, League of Education Voters and ACLU. As the campaign progresses we hope to include more organizations.