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Youth add their voices to community organizing
Nancy Meza knows she has a bright future. The 19-year-old Californian is in her first year at East Los Angeles Community College, majoring in political science. Law school is on the horizon, as well as a legal career specializing in issues of public interest and civil rights.
But Meza is well aware of the fact that, for many young people in Los Angeles — as in urban and rural communities around the country — the future is not as clear.
She recalls watching fellow high school students fall by the wayside of the educational system, suspended — often permanently — for violating strict attendance and discipline policies. Several friends, as well as her two brothers, dropped out before graduating, finding little to capture their academic interest in the overcrowded, under-resourced schools. And she saw many young people directed into low-skilled vocational tracks that offered little hope for living-wage careers.
 Engaging youth in calling for — and creating — change is a growing focus within the community-organizing field. |
Growing frustration over the lost hope and opportunity among her peers energized Meza to engage these problems head-on. As a high school sophomore, she joined United Students, the youth-organizing arm of the Los Angeles-based Inner City Struggle (ICS).
That grassroots movement, founded in 1994, seeks to bring the power of community organizing to bear on issues of educational and economic justice in the city’s eastside neighborhoods.
The potential for young people like Meza to help shape public policies is evident. United Students clubs have been successful in calling for the hiring of additional guidance counselors districtwide to help students plan and complete their high school careers, and prepare for college. Members also have won the implementation of culture-specific classes in schools with large Latin American populations, as well as changes to school tardiness and suspension policies that had kept many youth away from their studies.
Such stories of the youth-organizing movement in Los Angeles were highlighted at a November 2005 briefing — coordinated by Interfaith Funders (IF) — for representatives from the field of philanthropy.
Kathy Partridge, executive director of IF, says the insights shared at the briefing about the successes and challenges of this grassroots-driven work ultimately may help shape related grantmaking around the country.
IF provides grantmakers the opportunity to explore issues and strategies, develop new partnerships, and expand sources of support for faith-based community organizing. Mott Foundation support for IF activities has totaled $60,000 since 2004. Such grantmaking reflects Mott’s longstanding belief that civic engagement is a crucial first step toward identifying local concerns, formulating solutions and creating sustainable change.
The critical role that youth can play in transforming communities is not surprising to Luis Sanchez, executive director of ICS.
“Historically, there’s been a high level of inequity in educational opportunity, particularly between the city of Los Angeles and its suburbs,” he said. “But this legacy is being successfully challenged by youth who understand the contradictions within the system and the fact that people are being left behind.”
That impact was demonstrated in 2003 when youth organizers and ICS staff formed coalitions with like-minded grassroots groups, school administrators and other local leaders in calling for districtwide changes to school curriculums.
At issue were state education policies that require high school students to complete several specific academic courses before applying to California’s public colleges and universities. However, many Los Angeles area high schools — particularly those in low-income neighborhoods — do not offer the mandated coursework, leaving numerous students without hope of advancing their education.
The revisions called for by United Students and ICS — and formally adopted by the Los Angeles school district in 2005 — mandate that, by 2012, every school in the city provide its students with the required curriculum, as well as local teachers with related training and support. As a result, advocates say, many more local youth will be eligible — and prepared — for college enrollment.
United Students clubs are now active at three high schools on Los Angeles’ east side, with additional clubs in the planning stages. Sanchez says their collective power in bringing area youth and their parents together on local concerns has made the clubs formidable in working with traditional decisionmakers.
“Through these young people and their families, a lost cause can become an issue that the entire community takes on,” he said. “This has brought the work of ICS to a new level, where we can leverage support in a way we’d never dreamed before.”
Engaging youth, families and institutions in improving current conditions and creating future opportunities for the residents of Los Angeles is also a focus of One LA. The local initiative, launched in 2004, is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a network of 56 organizing programs in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany. Mott support for the formation and ongoing work of One LA has totaled $250,000 since 2005.
One LA’s success in bringing the voices of local youth to the change-making process is apparent. When area students found themselves the targets of gang member activity at school bus stops, they joined other One LA stakeholders in calling for increased police presence at those locations.
Staff also helped young people in South Los Angeles engage their parents and police in identifying and closing local drug houses. And youth have formed coalitions with teachers, school administrators and parents to improve school conditions within the city of Pasadena.
As many organizers in Los Angeles point out, achieving such progress is not without its challenges. Generations of poverty, aggravated by a lack of access to educational and economic opportunities, has left many area individuals, families and institutions feeling powerless.
But, advocates note, this history of inequity also can provide an important springboard for residents to recognize and embrace their potentially crucial role in demanding meaningful change.
“The primary skill we are building is local leadership, which in turn helps people develop public relationships that can lead to action,” said Joaquin Sanchez, a senior organizer with One LA. “Those relationships then break down isolation, build power and improve lives.”
Developing leadership among young people is also a key focus of South Central Youth Empowered through Action (SC-YEA), the youth-organizing component of the Los Angeles-based Community Coalition. The coalition, founded in 1990, is a grassroots-driven network of organizations seeking to create, influence and revise public policies that affect residents of the city’s south side.
SC-YEA has pioneered many youth organizing activities in the Los Angeles area, including the formation of clubs on high school campuses. The group has also helped others, including ICS, establish similar outreach in their own neighborhoods.
For many young people, says Coalition Executive Director Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the clubs offer a first glimpse at what organized, grassroots-driven action can accomplish.
“Young people are more likely to follow someone who is around their own age and who projects a sense of leadership,” he said. “And when kids on the school campuses see the very real changes that their peers are accomplishing, they get excited and want to be a part of it, too.”
Among SC-YEA’s recent successes:
- A campaign to improve the physical conditions of local schools prompted members to photograph the deteriorating facilities. The resulting evidence helped lead local officials in 2001 to earmark an additional $153 million over 6 years for building repairs and improvements.
- SC-YEA and coalition members called on the private sector in 1997 to reduce the concentration of tobacco and alcohol-related advertising near South Los Angeles schools, eventually winning an agreement with a local advertiser to replace many such billboards with the youths’ own anti-tobacco message.
Like United Students, SC-YEA also campaigned in 2005 for changes to pre-college curriculums in the city’s public schools.
Approximately 1,500 young people currently claim SC-YEA membership and more than 100 participate in the coalition’s leadership development program. That participation, Harris-Dawson says, reflects the desire among many young people to create meaningful, sustainable change.
“When you consider the enthusiasm and energy these young people bring to the table, well, we couldn’t possibly bring in enough professional organizers to match it,” he said.
The drive to transform her community is still strong for Nancy Meza. In addition to continuing her education, she remains active with the local United Students clubs and is a paid ICS staff member.
And while she points to strong public speaking and negotiation skills as among the personal benefits of her organizing experiences, she believes that the most meaningful outcome has been helping reveal the very real strength that local residents possess.
“When people are organized and informed, and when they have a vehicle in which they can express their concerns and carry out the actions necessary to make change, that’s when great power is created,” Meza said. “Helping my community work toward educational and social justice has been a life-changing experience and has shaped my goals and vision for the future.”