Youth Driven: How Youth Magnify Advocacy
August 17, 2020
By: Alejandro Galicia Cervantes, Government Relations Intern, MENTOR National
As a young person I have had the fortunate experience of being a part of organizations that have been youth driven. Organizations that have youth are either providing valuable feedback or being decision makers in all facets of the organization. I have also been a beneficiary of programing by organizations who are youth serving. Some youth serving organizations—that provide critical services—miss the opportunity to engage with youth in the development of programing. When youth are intentionally centered in the work both the organization and youth benefit from the mutual partnership.
In advocacy, being youth driven has the potential to widen the reach of grassroots campaigns or policy strategies. Youth, with training and mentoring support, can become systemic changemakers, and guiding north stars. All of which can take an advocacy campaign, lobby day, or meeting with a Congressional office to higher levels of engagement and impact. More than that, youth are experts in the systems within which they are a part of, beneficiaries of, or oppressed by. Youth can speak from the current experience of those impacted by systems and policy.
In my hometown, Sacramento, a notable example of an organization that is youth driven is the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Sacramento Collaborative (The Center at Sierra Health Foundation). I went through their pipeline[MY1] and received mentoring, training, education, and compensation for learning how to be a community changemaker. I came to understand that my brothers and I are indoctrinated into a heteronormative society that preaches binaries in sexuality and political ideologies. My brothers[MY2] and I became aware of the prison-industrial system that supports the over policing and criminalization of our skin colors. Even in our crowded classrooms and workplaces we are met with microaggressions and subjective infractions. I was able to research and co-author a policy brief on the systems and issues most prominent to Sacramento youth. I advocated the policy brief on a multitude of intersectional organizations like the Sacramento County Mental Health Board. As advocates, we have the most up-to-date perspectives on how those systems chaining our brothers’ bodies down impact our communities.
I was able to be an advocate for MBK Sacramento at the MBK Rising Conference. There I got the opportunity to be a part of a youth town hall with President Obama and Steph Curry where I advocated for the needs of my Sacramento community. I was able to be a panelist with youth leaders across the nation moderated by actor Karamo Brown. I was able elevate MBK Sacramento Collaborative’s advocacy on a national stage. Thus, investing in transitioning to becoming youth driven has the power to amplify advocacy efforts.
I’ve continued my advocacy by founding my own organization, Dream STEM Initiative, on a mission to expand computer science literacy, train the next generation of Immigrant STEM professionals, and advocate for STEM access. I serve on the Community Advisory Board for Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, MENTOR California Advisory Board, and the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Sacramento Coordinating Committee. My service is emblematic of youth commitment to our community. The power of being youth driven is one that should be embraced, in part, for the amplifying effect it has on advocacy. Are you youth driven or youth serving?