The Forum on Youth Activism in Education will be a two-day convening of youth activists, youth practitioners, policy makers, and researchers held at San Francisco State University in April 2009. The purpose of the Forum is to gather and strengthen a network of youth activist stakeholders by exchanging progressive ideas, strategies and resources that support and expand youth activism efforts.
Using a racial justice framework, the Forum on Youth Activism will focus on the intersection of race and youth as distinct social categories that together complicate educational opportunities and civic entitlements, protections and rights.
The Forum will include exchanges of knowledge and strategies between policy makers, researchers, youth activists and practitioners. It will provide various stakeholders opportunities to share information that can make their own work more effective, as well as identify avenues for collaborative with others to further activist efforts aimed at educational justice and equity. The Forum will center around a set of established issues that are demonstrated to facilitate increased collaboration and efficacy among existing youth activism efforts. Addressing these issues are crucial for all stakeholders; at the same time, each group of stakeholders can offer distinct perspectives and knowledge about these issues, resulting in a multi-faceted discussion of how youth activism can be strengthened.
Who sponsors the Forum?
The Forum on Youth Activism in Education is organized by Research Collaborative on Youth Activism (RCYA), which is a network of youth practitioners and scholars who work collaboratively in their neighborhoods to support youth activism efforts. Housed at San Francisco State University's César Chávez Institute, the network is organized collaboratively with the University of Arizona's Mexican American Studies and Research Center. The intent of the Collaborative is to organize information and facilitate the dissemination of relevant research findings to policy makers, practitioners and researchers in order to increase support for youth activism and social change activities. This year, the CCI Forum coincides with the 40th anniversary of the student strike that led to the formation of our host College, the SFSU College of Ethnic Studies, the first in the nation. Two years in the preparation, this event will be CCI's first two-day forum.
Why is there a need for a Forum on Youth Activism?
Despite the growing interest among researchers, policy makers and youth activist practitioners to build a progressive movement to improve educational opportunities, most of this work has been fragmented, disconnected and often in isolation from other important allies. Opportunities for collaboration among important but disconnected strands of youth activist work could both strengthen local organizing efforts and deepen our theoretical understanding about the role of youth activism. Stitching the quilt of these disconnected strands requires capacity, will and ingenuity. None of these alone can bring together the broad constellation of ideas, organizations, and people that are required to weave together a mosaic quilt of youth activism.
Both race and notions of youth shape policy issues such as police surveillance in local neighborhoods and zero tolerance policies in schools. Unfortunately, these policies often go unchallenged by adult advocates. The Forum will focus how youth activism can confront issues that disproportionately impact youth of color.
Goals for the Forum on Youth Activism in Education
- Formalize a network of youth activist stakeholders that includes policy makers, youth activists, practitioners, and scholars;
- Provide youth activist organizations with an avenue for collaboration and therefore more effective social action;
- Facilitate and document intergenerational dialogue about activism in education;
- Document issues related to youth activism and identity, issues and place;
- Create a context for exchange of practices, strategies and lessons from organizing and activism activities.
- Create resources that can be used for further strategizing, collaboration, and dissemination.
More information on this event, and registration guidelines, will be available on this site in the Fall of 2008.