Feeling some post-election blues? We hope that the stories, actions and updates below will keep our fire lit and help us continue our good fights.
Get Yr Rights Network!
BREAKOUT! (NEW ORLEANS, LA) AND STREETWISE AND SAFE (NEW YORK, NY) HAVE PARTNERED ON A PROJECT TO CREATE A NATIONAL LGBTQ YOUTH “KNOW YOUR RIGHTS” NETWORK OVER A ONE YEAR PERIOD.
Born out of conversations, workshops, surveys, and general kiki with LGBTQ youth organizations across the country, young people consistently identified the need for media, materials, and strategies in doing Know Your Rights (KYR) work.
Young people also identified needing more capacity to engage in KYR work – we believe that one way to build the capacity of organizations and groups to do this work is through having a network of support that folks can use as little or as much as they want to enhance their work.
– See more at: http://getyrrights.org/about-the-network/#sthash.yFryLVfJ.dpuf
Youth Organizing Institute and NC HEAT are happy to be a member of the Get Yr Rights network! You can check out our profile here along with other resources and members across the country.
What do we have to say about the elections?
Check out Ignite NC’s election day coverage and their election day #emix!
Irving Allen, organizer and field director with Ignite NC: “This is your time to have your voice heard.”
We know that this election season, like many that came before them, have had millions of dollars poured into campaigns and candidates that have the interests of big money in their minds. Take this pledge if you believe we should put people over money.
“THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF MONEY. RATHER, THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF WILL TO SPEND MONEY ON THE CORE ACADEMIC MISSION.”
The argument that UNCG is in dire financial straits is not supported by our own audited financial statements, which, placed in the context of IPEDS and other data, make it clear that, even as enrollment has decreased, UNCG’s endowment and reserves have grown (Bunsis, 32, 35); UNCG enjoys large excess cash flows (Bunsis, 38); and UNCG spends a grossly disproportionate amount of money from student fees and the general fund on our unsustainable athletics program (Bunsis,94, 97; on the futility of pursuing the “Gonzaga trueviagraonline effect,” see Robert Malekoff, “Intercollegiate Athletics in Higher Education: A Sometimes Uneasy Alliance,” 29 January 2014)[…]
Want to know more about what the NC Student Power Union has been up to lately? You can check out their weekly update here.
#PuebloPower
We want to welcome the new youth who are joining the work of El Pueblo, Inc.
Students Documenting the School-to-Prison-Pipeline
Students working with Critical Exposure are taking photos of their Washington D.C. public school experience.
“Everyday students have to enter through the auditorium doors and place their backpacks on the X-Ray machine. Then they walk through the metal detector to meet their bag on the other side and then must wait for the bags to be searched by a security guard. This makes students feel as if we’re going inside a jail to meet someone, or as if the staff sees us as criminals. Statistics show that 70 percent of students [who are] involved in ‘in-school’ arrests or are referred to law enforcement are black or Latino. If DCPS [D.C. Public Schools] wants to lower these numbers then why do we have the same procedures of entering a jail [instead of] a comforting environment of being welcomed to school?” – Mike
Student Dispatch: From California to Ferguson to Connecticut
via thenation.com
2. The Ferguson RepealOn October 27, Miami’s Power U Center for Social Change joined Dream Defenders, the Ohio Student Association and the Organization for Black Struggle for #Ferguson2Orlando to demand a fundamental shift in the way police relate to our community away from programs like Department of Defense program 1033, which provides police departments surplus military weapons to govern our community and schools. Together, we demonstrated outside the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s annual convening demanding the demilitarization of police departments and repeal of the 1033 program. Moving forward, alongside the Miami Committee on State Violence, we seek restorative solutions for justice.
—Keno Walker
Mike Brown! ¡Presente!
Check out this #DigitalAltar for Mike Brown via presente.org
Please Share and Donate
A recent fire in Broadmoor, New Orleans took the lives of a youth that worked with Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools and her family members. We are sending the family condolences and are boosting this fundraiser put on by her school, Andrew H. Wilson, to help cover funeral costs.