ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- During a recent national gathering of hardscrabble youth organizers here, veteran youth worker Rudy Chavez casually noted that his 30-year-old community-based youth services agency has an annual budget of $20 million. That's when the shoe dropped.
Chavez, chief operating officer of Youth Development, Inc., had invited organizers (ages 15 through 25) from six groups, in town to network and strategize, to a pizza-and-soda lunch presentation lauding the good works of his organization. A hand belonging to 20-year-old youth organizer Fernando Abeyta shot into the air. Abeyta -- wearing a black beret and fresh from a months-long youth-led campaign of marches, rallies and protests over the number of teens allowed to be together at an Albuquerque mall -- questioned YDI's "relevance" to the "very political" problems faced by today's teens. He labeled organizations like YDI, which provides temporary shelter, free meals and counseling, as proverbial "bandaid groups" that don't provide solutions to long-festering problems, but are only in business "to perpetuate themselves."
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Both YDI and the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), Abeyta's group, are based here -- but because of their generational and philosophic differences, they inhabit different worlds. The mall campaign was organized by SWOP, which in a good year has a budget of $250,000. "We were thrown off guard by the staggering amount of money they [YDI] are getting," SWOP organizer Karlos Schmieder, 24, said after the session with Chavez.
"We are very political. We call boycotts!" says cofounder Jeanne Gauna of the 20-year-old SWOP. "We don't take government money on general principle because there are restrictions -- you can't put politics in their stuff. From what I've seen, you get hooked on government money."
Chavez, who has put in 28 years at YDI, makes no excuses for the fact that 70 percent of YDI's budget comes from federal grants (among them several Head Start sites and a program for runaway and homeless youth), 15 percent from the state and 10 percent from the city. "We offer womb-to-tomb services for 20,000 youth in the state of New Mexico," he says proudly.
But youth organizers believe that engaging in political action and strategies for social change, not just care and counseling care, is essential to youth development. They argue that the best way to develop a new generation of leaders is through direct action, community research, issue development, reflection and political analysis. "Parents and community leaders who say it is wrong to politicize young people because they feel they're not yet ready are under the misapprehension that young people won't think of issues on their own," McGillicuddy contends.
That belief brought organizers here in January from as far away as California, Rhode Island, New York and Mississippi, under the aegis of the D.C.-based Center for Community Change. They talked about youth-led or youthdriven efforts that have racked up modest successes in areas such as juvenile justice reform, environmental justice, education reform, youth services spending and police brutality. With these issues resonating among youth, the number of youth-organizing-focused agencies has swollen from a handful 10 years ago to dozens today. Some of their well-publicized efforts include:
- Participating in the massive 1999 Seattle street demonstrations against the World Trade Organization -- which drew from the ranks of youth organizing as well as environmentalists and anti-child labor advocates -- were activists from the Albuquerque-based Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (which includes SWOP), the Boston-based Center for Community Organizing and a host of like-minded groups;
- The 1996 passage of the Measure K ballot initiative in Oakland, Calif., to establish the Oakland Fund for Children & Youth, which allocates 2.5 percent of the city's unrestricted general fund for services that benefit youth. The Kids First! Campaign (fully supported by the city's ritzy and so-called "perpetuating" CBOs) was driven by young organizers, such as People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), who collected over 30,000 signatures (15 percent of the city's population) in 120 days to get the initiative on the ballot;
- The creation in 1998 of the South Bronx Community Justice Center (abetted by a juvenile justice advisory board of community residents and peers) after a more than four-year campaign of youth mapping and surveys, protests and rallies focusing on overcrowded detention facilities and the high incidence of minority arrests. The campaign was waged by the Bronx-based Youth Force. Youth picked up by police for minor offenses are now referred to the center, which claims to have diverted some 650 youth from the juvenile justice system;
- Mississippi's Southern Echo, a community organizing, education and training organization, has effectively maneuvered into the state's legislative public policy arena by helping community-based groups in rural and low-income Delta communities marshal their forces (with an emphasis on youth) to be heard on education reform issues. Since 1996, through its alliance with the 14-member Mississippi Education Working Group, Southern Echo has coordinated strategies -- including public hearings and private meetings with legislators -- focusing on the Delta area's 50-percent school dropout rates and the lowest statewide test scores in the nation.
"There are now a broad array of models," observes Amanda Berger, a program officer for the New York City-based Jewish Fund for Justice. "There are youth-led groups, generational groups, add-ons to adult groups and independent groups. They are creative."
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The range of youth activist interest and engagements today are seemingly limitless. Kellye McIntosh, 29, is the national coordinator of Co/Motion, an initiative of the D.C.-based Alliance for Justice that provides training and networking opportunities for youth activists. Co/Motion will open a new office in Chicago this month; it also has regional offices in Atlanta and New York. "Young people are on the front lines" of social change, says McIntosh. She cites the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy in D.C., which did extensive research on illegal gun trafficking in the city. A delegation of Chavez students asked for and got meetings with the city's police chief and mayor to present their findings and to urge that the city government put more effort into getting guns off the streets.
Youth anti-gun initiatives have sprung up nationwide. "They see the gun violence, they go through the metal detectors at their schools, they see people carrying concealed deadly weapons -- it is part of their everyday lives," remarks McIntosh. Groups such as the Dallas-based Young Texans Against Gun Violence have organized safety-lock campaigns, gun-show protests and candlelight vigils for gun violence victims.
Along the way, the youth activists develop marketable leadership skills. SWOP's Karlos Schmieder designs and maintains SWOP's website, along with writing for the organization's biannual magazine. At Youth Force, 18-year-old Aubrey Rogers, a staffer in the Teens and Tenants component, is shooting and producing a video on the wretched living conditions of low-income residents of Bronx housing projects. Others learn how to develop public policy proposals and the art of effective issue oriented public speaking.
Money on the Way?
A notation in the 1998 "Notes From the Field," a report on the 1998 youth organizer/funder retreat held at Pocantico Center, N.Y. states, "No youth-led campaign in the nation has a budget of more than $300,000 or $400,000." Youth Force, because of its mushrooming activities, has burst through this glass ceiling somewhat with a budget of $600,000. More help is on the way.
"We now have 260 proposals vying for $600,000 in grants for youth organizing programs and initiatives that will be announced" in late March, avers the Jewish Fund for Justice's Amanda Berger, who is also co-founder of the about-to-debut Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO). The collaborative boasts 20 members and counting, like the Ford, Surdna, Edward W. Hazen and Third Wave foundations. Vera Miao, FCYO project director, hopes to raise $5 million over five years for grantmaking, capacity building and administration. What they will be paying for makes some people uncomfortable.
Healthy Conflict
"Youth are making their organizations dynamic by not being afraid to address institutional problems and by bringing a sense of idealism to their efforts," says Berger. "When they see huge numbers of fellow students dropping out or being suspended, for instance, they name injustice for what it is, see things that aren't fair and act." What about the resulting conflict? Says Kellogg Program Officer Winnie Hernandez-Gallegos: "Conflict is good in the creative sense in that it creates the tension that moves you from point A to point B. In moving inertia to action, conflict is inherent. There has to be a level of disagreement before the status quo can be moved to action." "When there's an imbalance of power, there's always conflict," maintains Hazen Program Officer Jose Montes. "Young people are going through a healthy process for the greater good." Chuck Shuford, executive director of the Colorado-based Needmor Fund, remembers none of this kind of talk from his nascent youth organizing days in the 1970s. "Youth projects were just small components of community organizing efforts. There was never a focus on youth organizing. We would go to foundations, but there wasn't much interest and they didn't know what was happening in that area." It's now a new ball game, says Robert Sherman, Berger's co-founder of the funders' collaborative. "We need to get young people involved in developing policy and funding flow," maintains Sherman, a Surdna Foundation program officer. He points out that his foundation's goals were revised last May to focus on youth activism. "Effective youth development and concrete social change go on the same timeline." Sherman cites the Alameda, Calif.-based Home Project, comprised mainly of high schoolers, as an active group that "developed appropriate opportunities" and built their own skate park and opened their own employment office.
Different Strokes
At the organizer's get-together here in January, the issues of white-black relations and the sharing of power with youth in organizing as well as direct-service efforts gets interesting responses from the fully committed.
"We once had a white college student call us to say she'd like to join our staff because she'd like to have an adventure in the South," recalls Southern Echo's Nsombi Lambright. "Clearly, this is not the kind of attitude one should bring to an organization charged with nuts-andbolts issues and a deep understanding of issues. In addition, we require a three-year commitment. And what if the adventure' is not a good one, do you haul tail and run?" The woman was politely discouraged.
White men "fronting" community nonprofits came in for some slaps from young people for having, as one expressed it, "little interaction with other cultures." Sara Mersha, executive director of the Providence, R.I.-based Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), declares that organizations she has had dealings with "won't talk about racism." She says she was forced on occasion to ask youthserving agencies, "What are you organizing for? What are you building?"
Even tactics differ among agencies. DARE, Youth Force, and People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) have staged loud publicity blowouts, especially for education issues such as suspensions and truancy fines, to focus the community's attention on administrative inequities.
"That would never work for us," admits Ellen Reddy, an organizer with Citizens for a Quality Education in Lexington, Miss., which is allied with Southern Echo on school accountability issues. "They don't play that in Mississippi." Reddy says that in her state it is imperative that advocates know more about the law than the officials (especially in education reform efforts); then they stand to gain a measure of success. Another staffer claims that one way to be certain the southern press won't show up is to have a demonstration by teenagers. Southern Echo's community organizing activities got a $200,000 two-year Ford Foundation grant in May 2000 (for education on voting rights and redistricting) and another $500,000 two-year general support grant in September 2000. The Charles S. Mott and Hazen foundations also fund Southern Echo.
Youth Force's McGillicuddy, still bristling and charged at 32, is optimistic that the investment in youth will pay off. Her organization practices what she preaches, with five of its nine full-time staffers under 21, a part-time cadre of "20 to 25" young people, and a board that she says is made up of "51 percent youth." Without hesitation, she says, "I don't think the future of youth depends on foundations or the wants and dictates of adults and police. Young people will be at the forefront in increased numbers because the grassroots organizations such as Southern Echo and SWOP have been around so long they're becoming institutions. Many have been around for two decades or more.
"Their strength and value lies in the fact they've made strides, created curriculums, bring out publications and established a strong membership base."
Tactics for Recruitment and Survival
For a high-velocity, high-turnover organization to stay alive, it must constantly recruit fresh talent. And the remarkable longevity of several youth organizing groups is a heartening sign, says Kim McGillicuddy of Youth Force, because it shows they can go "on and on." But the techniques of attracting volunteers, members and staff vary wildly. The 10-year-old Youth Force, for instance, recruits from juvenile detention centers and starts organizing from within. Its current co-lead organizer, Ramesh James, was recruited at 16 while serving time at the then-Spofford Juvenile Detention Center. "Oh, it's easy," recalls McGillicuddy. "First you tell the facility officials that you're looking for youngsters with leadership abilities to teach them leadership skills. Then, after they select the people, you go from there." James, already an angry organizer within the facility, acquired added clout and skills by joining Youth Force while clashing regularly with authorities over issues such as overcrowding and religious discrimination. As protest pressure mounted, the facility's name was changed to "Bridges," and two more facilities were built -- with libraries and the right of inmates to practice non-Christian religions guaranteed.
Pursuing a different tack, the 26-year-old Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) and its offshoot, CCI of Des Moines, employs Shundrea Green, 23, as its youth organizer. Currently CCI is focusing on neighborhood revitalization efforts to open up mortgage opportunities for low-income residents, clean-up campaigns and cooperative landscaping endeavors. Green offers these recruitment tips:
- Visit local hangouts and places that youth go, good or bad (schools, parks, basketball courts, liquor stores), to talk about your program.
- Know what you're talking about.
- Don't dominate the conversation. Ask youth for their opinions, and listen.
- Be well prepared -- bring flyers, brochures and signup sheets.
- Follow through. Send letters to every person you contact, inviting them to a meeting. Call those who don't show to let them know they were missed, and let them know about upcoming meetings and events.
Now, claims Green, CCI can count on the active involvement of 38 youths in survey-taking, research projects and assorted demonstrations.
Bill Alexander can be reached at balex@youthtoday.org.
RESOURCES
Julia Burgess
Director of Special Initiatives
Center for Community Change
1000 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 339-9337burgessj@commchange.org
Brenda Hyde, Assistant Director
Southern Echo
P.O. Box 2450
Jackson, MS 39225
(601) 352-1500
Ramesh James, Co-Lead Organizer
Youth Force
320 Jackson Ave.
Bronx, NY 10454
(718) 665-4268
E-mail: youthforce@hotmail.com
Vera Miao, Project Director
Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing
c/o Jewish Fund for Justice
260 Fifth Ave., Suite 701
New York, NY 10001
(212) 213-2113
www.jfjustice.org
Jeanne Gauna, Co-Founder
South West Organizing Project
211 10th St. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102-2919
(505) 247-8832
E-mail: swop@swop.net
www.swop.net
Report typos and corrections to: feedback@alternet.org.
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