Archive for year: 2019

It’s important to actively confront an American culture that continues to disproportionately and systemically punish black and brown people across the country – from incarceration to portrayal in the media, and treatment at school. At last month’s 4th Annual Civic Engagement Forum on Ending The School To Prison Pipeline, hosted by Think Make Live Youth in Bexley, Ohio, a junior high student named Tremaine voiced that need and showed just how deeply these prejudices can run. “When a lot of people look at me, they look at me as crazy, they look at me as scary, they look at me as tough, as just a football player,” Tremaine said. “I want to be known more than that, I want to be known as the nice kid, I want to be known as the kid who actually knows how to excel in school.”

Taking place inside Bexley’s Capital University, the Forum amplified the voices of directly-impacted people and opportunity youth – young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school or the workforce – and talked about potential policy solutions to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline. Among the more than 120 attendees, nearly half of them were young people, and some of the invited speakers included members of the local halfway house and currently-incarcerated citizens. Early on in the program, members of the Columbus Community Action Team made sure to set the intention and emphasize their role as facilitators, educators, and mentors. “Our mission is to help provide a voice for youth by organizing, participating in, and educating in community service projects where we can strengthen relationships for our youth,” they told attendees.

To Think Make Live Youth’s founder, Terry Green, 31, driving this conversation is important to guarantee youth success. As a teenager, he met his first mentor in prison while serving out a four-year sentence. Angela Bryant, a sociology professor at Ohio State University-Newark, taught courses at the facility where he was held via the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program.

“She believed in me and gave me experience not only inside but outside,” Green says. Shortly after his release, he reconnected with Bryant. With her help and encouragement, he was encouraged to visit Ohio State University – not as a student, but as a presenter. There, Think Make Live’s ideological root was first articulated publicly. “First, you think good thoughts of change. Then you make a positive change of actions and live the lifestyle of being changed,” he told the students.

In the intervening years, Green’s organization has grown into many things: a social justice consultancy firm centered on youth workforce development, the lead organization for several local summits and workshops, and a separate community-based and youth-led nonprofit network called Think Make Live Youth. As a model mentor, Green has been able to attend dozens of presentations at organizations and schools, passing on his expertise and passion to professionals, advocates, and local officials.

That collaborative mindset is within the organization, too. Founded in 2017, Think Make Live Youth was built to serve young people in the Columbus, Ohio area by creating a network of young professionals eager to learn and share resources. Now, Think Make Live Youth is primarily led by young people who advanced through the program. “Terry has a youthful heart and that’s what I love about him being my mentor,” Stacia Tabler, current President of Think Make Live Youth, says. “He’s actually giving roles to people and try to balance us out.”

Despite coming so far, Green hasn’t lost sight of the mentors that inspired him along the way, “[Bryant] gave me an opportunity to share my story. I survived homelessness. I watched my Mom get incarcerated and separated from my father. I was incarcerated for four years. But if I didn’t start this platform, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” he says.

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Jamal Stone is a Digital Engagement Associate at SparkAction, where he helps strategize and execute on content-driven campaigns, with a focus on equity, opportunity and youth justice.  His writing has appeared in outlets such as Genius, Milk.xyz, and Broad Street Magazine, with a strong focus on how social justice intersects with art. More about Jamal.

By Maharddhika

In its second year, the Reconnecting Youth Campaign has set a bold goal: build on the success of its inaugural year, which saw a $195 million increase in Congressional funds to programs that provide pathways to school, work and job training for Opportunity Youth. This year’s goal is to secure enough federal funding to reconnect one million Opportunity Youth—young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school or the workforce—each year. (Currently, programs such as AmeriCorps, the service and conservation corps, Public Allies, YouthBuild, Job Corps and the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe reach about 360,000 young people each year.)

On September 5, 2019, about 40 people from cross-sector partners and allies, including OYUnited leaders and members, gathered at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) office in Washington, DC. Among them were youth leaders from across the country who have been working in their hometowns to organize their peers and to build relationships with their Congressional Representatives to support this campaign.

Understanding the Situation and Solution

In the morning, young leaders gathered to learn about the appropriations process and about a range of policies that impact young people. Thomas Showalter, Executive Director of National Youth Employment Coalition, started the discussion with an update on the status of federal appropriations for programs that provide education, job training, counseling and community service for Opportunity Youth. Funding remains wholly insufficient. Strong and robust investments are needed to help reconnect 4.5 million Opportunity Youth. “Congress should be spending $4 billion more to serve the nation’s 4.5 million Opportunity Youth,” Showalter said.

There was also an opportunity to dig deeper into the federally funded programs and ask questions in smaller groups. Taimarie Adams, Government Relations Director of Service Year Alliance fielded questions on national service. Doug Ierely, Director of Advocacy & Policy with Youth Build USA, shared updates on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Brendan O’Hara, Deputy Director of National Jobs Corps Association, discussed Jobs Corps. The current economic and political climate has posed some challenges for Job Corps. For example, on May 24, 2019, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its plan to terminate the U.S Forest Service’s long-standing operation of the 25 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, which provide essential job training to disadvantaged Opportunity Youth across rural America.

The meeting also covered intersectional issues like the green economy. The green economy represents one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. economy, offering a chance for policymakers, advocates, youth and industry leaders to rethink access to work, careers, innovation and opportunity.

Denise Fairchild, President & CEO of the Emerald Cities Collaborative drew the connection between the economy, the environment and equity. “Our young people are core to reshaping how America works, how it’s built and who gets benefit from it,” she said.

As one of strategies to raise the public visibility of these issues, young leaders learned how to effectively use social media to build awareness, amplify shared messages and calls to action, and inform and engage key stakeholders. The campaign hashtag is #ReconnectingYouth.

A Reconnecting Youth Campaign team on Capitol Hill

Hill Meetings: Connecting with Senators

After lunch (provided by Foodhini, a DC-based caterer with a social mission) and a training led by Opportunity Youth United founding member Shanice Turner, the campaign visited Capitol Hill to meet with the staff of 16 Senators: Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Neely Kennedy (R-LA), Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Brain Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), John Boozman (R-Ark), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Chris Coons (D-DE), Tom Udall (D-NM), Christopher Van Hollen (D-MD) and Tim Tillis (R-FL).

In the meetings, Reconnecting Youth Campaign members shared the youth disconnection rate in the Senator’s home state, and what it would mean for the state’s young people and its economy if the campaign’s goals of increased funding were met. According to the latest Measure of America data, West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas are the states with highest with youth disconnection rate (ranging from 15.1 to 17.0 percent of young people).

The teams had two calls to action for each Senator: First, increase funding for Opportunity Youth programs during this appropriations process. Secondly, help create a Congressional Opportunity Youth Caucus to champion the needs and contributions of Opportunity Youth.

In a meeting with Meghan V. Dorn, Legislative Aide to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Troy Johnson, an Opportunity Youth United local team leader from Mississippi, shared how YouthBuild, helped him at a crucial time in his life. YouthBuild also opened up opportunities to join other great programs, like AmeriCorps.

“Those programs changed my life from what I was to where I am now. Funding for these program help me a lot. It was the great real investment,” Johnson said.

In response, Meghan V. Dorn said, “Senator Lindsey O. Graham always been supported the AmeriCorps program. It has been a really effective in South Carolina. We have seen the impact. We have seen the great value in that.”

Members of the Reconnecting Youth Campaign meeting with Sen. Moore-Capito’s office.

Helping former Opportunity Youth connect directly with Members of Congress has been one of the biggest factors in the Reconnecting Youth Campaign’s first-year success. The campaign and the local youth leaders are making sure the relationships continue to grow.

As one young leader explained during the convening, it’s a good idea to start building relationships before you need to ask for support for bills or funding. Also, the pre-election phase, when politicians are thinking about winning or retaining office, is another strategic moment to build relationships and negotiate needs.

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The Reconnecting Youth Campaign is a collaborative campaign calling on Congress to invest in America’s future by funding 1 million pathways to education, training, national service and employment opportunities for Opportunity Youth, 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school or work.

It brings together more than 40 organizations, including Opportunity Youth United, to call on Congress to invest more in the programs that work, so they can reach more of our nation’s 4.5 million Opportunity Youth. You can learn about the mission and members here. You can read the first-year report on the Campaign’s work and impact here.

Maharddhika is visiting fellow with the Forum for Youth Investment’s SparkAction initiative, through the U.S. Department of State’s Community Solutions Program. In his home country of Indonesia, he is a program officer for Association for Election and Democracy, and NGO based in Jakarta. He has experience in conducting advocacy research that supports marginalized groups’ right to participate in free and fair elections and to keep their sovereignty in democracy. He is passionate about civic education for young people to participate in various aspects of civic life: voting, volunteering, deliberating on issues and advocating for a cause.