ORGANIZING FOR SELF-DETERMINATION AND JUSTICE
Slide to see our organizing campaigns
As a community, East Palo Alto has a rich history of movement. It is a history borne out of struggle and the self-determined imagination of the Black Power movement that struggles led by other peoples of color are also driven by. One wouldn't think that driving through our city now, East Palo Alto was once filled with Nairobi schools, community centers, shops, and villages that raised young people to be proud of their roots -- whether you're Black, Latino, and/or Pacific Islander. Many of those cultural institutions are gone and in their place are brownfields, empty lots, contaminated land, and/or businesses that seem to cater more to our richer neighbors than to the people of our community.
But the spirit of organizing is well and alive in our community. These are the footsteps that young people from YUCA follow in order to carve our own paths. Young people from YUCA are principled fighters and leaders who put our words and ideals to action. Since 1994, YUCA youth have taken on pressing community issues - whether it is environmental racism, affordable housing, tenant rights, immigrants rights, or juvenile justice . Through intense leadership development that is grounded in real-time community organizing, young people at YUCA prove that youth are not just the promise of the future, but all the possibilities of the present.
To join our campaigns, email Kenia Najar, Program Director.
Click below to see our previous reports, presentations, and publications.
Presentation by Youth United for Community Action, Urban Habitat, Public Advocates and NonProfit Housing Association on "Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits"
