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The Youth Power Fund (YPF) is excited to announce grants to 32 youth organizing groups in Northern California to collectively cultivate a powerful youth organizing ecosystem with shared strategies that engage more young people, expand power, and support transformative youth organizing practices in the field.
Three weeks ago, the two of us stepped into our new roles as acting Co-CEOs of Northern California Grantmakers. That was the same day the world learned we would need vigorous hand-washing and distance to protect each other and everyone in our community from a new rapidly spreading virus. A most unusual start in our roles. But, then again, these are most unusual times.
Youth involved in the legal system are much more likely to experience housing insecurity. In turn, youth who are homeless are much more likely to be incarcerated. These facts are so well documented that they’re truisms. What’s less established is how we interrupt carceral cycles so that homelessness is never the result for young people in the legal system.
Even before a global pandemic, that was the question we kept asking ourselves. Children are thrown into cages. Anti-immigrant rhetoric. A threat to render our immigrant communities invisible through a citizenship question on the census. Mass shootings from Buffalo, NY to Uvalde, TX.
To truly strengthen our democracy for the long-term, funders need to hear directly from young people and youth organizing staff and follow their lead to deeply invest in the ecosystem that builds political home and collective agency for us.
All children deserve to have access to a quality education. They deserve to feel safe and supported in a place that exists to prepare them for their futures. Yet, for Black youth and other youth of color, this is far from the reality. Every day, Black children and other youth of color, some as young as six are being pushed out of classrooms and schools because of deep racial profiling. Across the country, Black high school students are twice as likely to be suspended as white students. In Oakland, while Black youth made up 26 percent of the Oakland Unified School District’s enrollment, they represented 73 percent of arrests. This vicious cycle continues to fuel pathways to prison and confinement, where Black youth are consistently over-represented, which creates additional barriers for our young people to realize and achieve their full potential.
NCG's Sarah Frankfurth chatted with Pui Ling Tam and Chrissy Sa about the Fund and lessons learned. tam Pui Ling Tam led the initial funder organizing to launch the Generational Recovery Fund, and Chrissy Sa and Pui Ling Tam served as Advisory Group Members throughout the life of the Fund. Watch and read more about the experience of leaders and youth participants from the fund below.