2007 – 2008 Grantmaking
FCYO's grantmaking has shifted from a general grantmaking pool to a strategic initiative-based model in order to target, maximize and leverage resources for youth organizing. Our main Grantmaking Program is called ReGenerations. Each of the initiatives under the ReGenerations umbrella focuses on the role that youth leadership and organizing plays in building and sustaining strong social justice movements. This shift allows us to garner resources and learning that will deepen and expand the impact of our grantmaking. Our first initiative under the ReGenerations umbrella is ReGenerations: Leadership Expansion for Environmental Justice (ReGen: EJ).

In addition to providing the second half of the two-year grants in our ReGenerations grantmaking, FCYO has renewed several grants for emerging youth organizing groups nationally.  We also administered the final grants in the New York City Opportunities Fund dedicated to providing small grants to address typically unmet technical assistance needs and/or collaboration projects defined by youth organizing groups in New York City.

ReGen:EJ Grants
Emerging Youth Organizing Groups - Renewals
NYC Opportunities Fund

ReGenerations:
Leadership Expansion for Environmental Justice (ReGen: EJ)
Launched in 2006, ReGen EJ is a multi-year initiative that supports environmental justice organizations’ increased effectiveness in youth leadership development; provides opportunities for strategy and model sharing between organizations; and documents effective models of multi-generational community organizing that contributes to the sustainability of effective leadership in the environmental justice movement.

2007 ReGen: EJ Grants - Second Year

TOTAL: $300,000

Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC) - Flagstaff, AZ
To support BMWC's work with Navajo and Hopi reservations around issues of environmental justice and climate justice. This grant also suppors BMWC’s annual youth summit which has three major goals: 1) to provide a space for rejuvenation and motivation of young people, 2) to provide skills for organizing and simply living in a more sustainable world, and 3) to support the development of young leaders.
$30,000

Community Water Center - Vasalia, CA
To support the fulfillment of the following organizational goals for Community Water Center: to build the capacity of residents of disadvantaged communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley; to engage in water policy decision-making; and to act as a catalyst for community-driven solutions to immediate and long-term water challenges for disadvantaged communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
$15,000

Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ) - Detroit, MI
To support DWEJ to institutionalize environmental justice youth development in Detroit through building leadership capacity, advocacy, education and diversity by strengthening Youth on Patrol Against Pollution (YoPAP). DWEJ will focus on peer training, problem solving, intergenerational leadership mentoring, civic engagement, and community organizing through the development of YoPAP chapters in churches, elementary- high schools, neighborhood block clubs and civic organizations.
$30,000

Little Village Environmental Justice Organizations (LVEJO) - Chicago, IL
To sustain and expand LVEJO’s youth Leadership Campaigns for Clean Air, Clean Land, Transit Justice, El Cilantro Newspaper, Immigrant Rights, Anti-Militarization of Our Youth and Our History Project.
$30,000

Native Movement - Flagstaff, AZ
To support the sustainability of 12 projects within the collective which are organized into three areas: Bioregional Lifeways Network which will conduct three Youth in Sustainability Leadership Programs; the Youth Movement which will develop large scale public art projects that relate to indigenous land struggles, environmental justice, sacred sites and community sustainability; and Free Alaska which will produce educational and presentation materials to provoke dialogue and support solutions that are based in conservation, renewable energy, and sustainability.
$30,000

Nollie's Citizens for Quality Education (CQE) - Lexington, MS
To support the Environment Education & the Arts program to promote the building and sustaining of healthy schools and residential communities. CQE seeks to identify and hold local governance bodies accountable for cleaning up illegal dumpsites and establishing legal places for the citizens in Holmes County rural communities’ to dispose of trash and white goods.
$30,000

Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) - Albuquerque, NM
To support SWOP’s youth organizing component to develop young leaders and members by outreaching to high school and college students on civic participation, the summer internship program, and recruiting participants for curriculum workshops; and to conduct environmental justice tours.
$30,000

Southwest Workers Union (SWU) - San Antonio, TX
To support and foster new youth leadership to expand and sustain SWU and its youth component through the development of an art and culture program and a youth-led campaign for Energy and Climate Justice in Texas and the bi-national Gulf Coast region. SWU is building strategic linkages with organizations in the South following their Gulf Coast Justice & Solidarity Tour post-Katrina and Rita to overcome geographic, racial and political barriers between the south and southwest.
$30,000

UPROSE - Brooklyn, NY
To support organizers' work to heighten community awareness, increase involvement, develop environmental remediation strategies and participatory community planning practices, and promote sustainable development, governmental accountability and environmental justice. The re-development of the Sunset Park waterfront, brownfield remediation, implementation of the community greenway design and alternative energy are the focal points of this year's work.
$30,000

Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) -
New Orleans, LA
To hire VAYLA-NO staff organizers who will continue to expand and develop membership and coordinate the process for refining their structure and organizing model. VAYLA-NO has been leading organizing efforts to stop the toxic dumping of Hurricane Katrina construction debris in a landfill located less than a mile away from heart of Versailles, historically an African American and Vietnamese American community.
$15,000

Youth United for Community Action - East Palo Alto, CA
To support Higher Learning East Palo Alto (HL EPA), a program which provides East Palo Alto high school aged youth with a space and vehicle to create positive community change and develop productive life skills through community organizing. HL EPA youth are organizing around two campaigns: the Environmental Justice Accountability Campaign and the Anti-Gentrification Campaign.
$30,000

EMERGING YOUTH ORGANIZING GROUPS - RENEWALS

TOTAL: $100,000

2007 Grants Awarded:

Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP) - Baltimore, MD
To expand BAP's successful model of paid tutoring as an organizing platform for student advocacy and activism; to create crucial after school jobs; and to help students become more engaged in learning and undertaking “Freedom Fall” which is Baltimore City's version of Mississippi's 1964 Freedom Summer.
$10,000

Community IMPACT! (CI!) - Nashville, TN
To support Oasis CI! to deepen their advocacy against predatory lending by increasing staff capacity. To support the continued development of CI!'s community-based economics work and increase the scope of their financial education work through organizing for curricular changes to make economics classes more relevant to low-income students.
$10,000

Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) - Jackson Heights, NY
To support DRUM to develop the organizing capacity of low-income South Asian and Muslim immigrant youth to build public action for the “Education not Deportation” campaign in Queens public high schools.
$10,000

Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) - Boise, ID
To support the development of youth leadership teams across the state and coordinating youth/community in support of immigrant and health care justice campaigns.
$10,000

Padres Unidos/ Jovenes Unidos - Denver, CO
To support Jovenes Unidos to end the racial disparities and harsh and punitive disciplinary codes of Denver Public Schools by creating alternative disciplinary programs, radically lowering issuance of police tickets, and building supportive school cultures; to provide academic support and guidance to youth leaders.
$10,000

Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) - Providence, RI
T o support PrYSM's research and analysis; campaign development; base-building and overall program and operational capacity. To further support the development of Southeast Asian Queers for Empowerment and Leadership.
$10,000

Sistas on the Rise - New York, NY
To support Sistas on the Rise to increase the number of teen mothers in NYC that receive a high school diploma, GED or non-traditional work training; to increase teen mother’s participation in organizing/social justice work; and to bring their perspectives to tables where their voices aren’t heard. Also, to support Sistas on the Rise’s Leadership Development Program; to provide trainings for young mothers to develop leadership skills; and to facilitate political education and critical thinking among 100 young women through workshops, film viewings, readings and events.
$10,000

Urban Underground - Milwaukee, WI
To support the Youth Empowerment Project to increase their outreach capacity and to address issues of: teen pregnancy, the lack of comprehensive study of HIV/AIDS infections of Black teens, Youth Violence, Incarceration and Public Education.
$10,000

Youth Education Alliance (YEA) - Washington, DC
To support youth-driven organizing campaigns that improve the quality of public education in the District of Columbia and to monitor the implementation of two platform victories: improving school bathrooms and lunches.
$10,000

Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) - Los Angeles, CA
To support YJC’s work in building a youth-led movement to challenge race, gender and class inequality in the Los Angeles County juvenile justice system through coalition- building, direct action organizing, advocacy and activist arts to mobilize youth and their allies.
$10,000

NEW YORK CITY OPPORTUNITIES FUND
GRANTMAKING

TOTAL: $25,000

2007 Grants

AWAAM: Arab women Active in the Arts and Media

$2000

Reflection Space

AWAAM provides comprehensive leadership opportunities in community organizing, art, and media skills to young women and girls. The organization is looking for funding for a board, staff, and youth retreat to assess the organizations programs and organizing plans. The organization is shifting and growing and youth are intentionally having more of a leadership role in the organization. The retreat would be to discuss this shift. Three new youth are currently now board members.  They’ve been asked to submit a proposal for this event.

 

Brotherhood Sistersol

$2000

Technical Assistance

Brotherhood/Sister Sol sent 5 youth and to Free Minds, Free People Conference in Chicago on June 21-24, 2004 focused on developing and promosting Education for Liberation. Education for Liberation is the umbrella term used to describe the work of people who are trying to link education, social justice and activism. Other more common terms are popular education, social justice education, survival schools or Freedom Schools. The youth not only participated but helped organize the conference with Sistas and Brothas United and FIERCE. The goals in attending the conference are the following: to build connections between people from different backgrounds with an interest in this issue, to talk about what works and why, helping participants develop practical skills and techniques that they can use in their educational settings and to determine what steps need to be taken to further develop this movement.

 

Critical Resistance

$2500

Collaboration

Critical Resistance and Justice Works Fighters 4 Justice are collaborating on sending 12 youth leaders and 2 adult staff from both organizations to the United States Social Forum in Atlanta. The grant would cover transportation, food and lodging. Attending the USSF together will; enhance and sustain their collaborative work, continue to build together and enhance their organizing work. Critical Resistance through its Freedom School aims to stop jail expansion in NYC by bridging together Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender most impacted by policing, jails and prisons with women particularly those impacted by the Prison Industrial Complex. Justice Works Fighters 4 Justices youth program began the summer of 2005 to heal from the effects of the racist, classist, misogynistic and homophobic Rockefeller Drug and to quicken the day of their repeal.

 

Make the Road by Walking

$2700

Technical Assistance

This grant is to support 6 youth and 2 adults from Youth Power, Make the Road by Walking’s youth program, to attend Education for Liberation/Free Minds Free People conference in Chicago from June 21-24, 2007. This conference provides members, some of who have little opportunity to leave New York City, to learn about best practices in campaign strategy and youth development program structure nationwide.  One priority that both staff and youth have identified for improvement over the past year has been their political education content and structure.  Attending this conference will allow participants to learn models of integrating political education trainings and workshops into their organizing work on a more consistent basis.

 

Movement for El Barrio

$2000

Technical Assistance

Movement for Justice in El Barrio is an immigrant-led community organization dedicated to organizing the leaders of El Barrio, a predominantly low-income, immigrant neighborhood located in Upper Manhattan, to lead the way to social justice. They are sending 2 youth and staff to the United States Social Forum (USSF) to lead a session. In this session, immigrant members will lead a presentation on their local organizing against gentrification and for immigrant rights in NYC and how it connects to their work organizing across borders for immigrant rights and against neoliberalism as part of the Zapatista-initiated “Other Campaign.”

 

Sistas on the Rise

$5,000

Collaboration

Sistas on the Rise in collaboration with SisterFire (NYC chapter of INCITE!) are sending 25 youth to the USSF. The grant will cover food and travel costs of attending the forum. This collaboration includes the following groups: Sistas on the Rise, Sista ii Sista, Center for Immigrant Families, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, Incite Women of Color Against Violence NYC, Dominican Women's Development Center, Damayan Migrant Workers Association, Brotherhood/Sistersol, May First Collective, and Ladies on the Mic. Immigrant young women and women with children will use this space to strategize and share the work they do with some of the countries most marginalized communities in NYC.

 

Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice

$3,700

Technical Assistance

This grant will support 5 youth of Youth Organizers-in-Training to attend the Education for Liberation/Free Minds Free People Chicago on June 21-24, 2007. YMPJ youth will have the opportunity to share their own work on youth organizing campaigns in the South Bronx.  The conference will be an opportunity for our young people to collaborate with other organizers, activists, and educators to develop solutions to the injustices they see in their schools and society.

 

Girls for Gender and Equity

$2,550

2 Day Technical Assistance Retreat

 

Malcom X Grassroots Movement

$2,550

2 Day Technical Assistant Retreat