THE ROOTS INITIATIVE (2003)

Launched in 2003, the Roots Initiative is a three-year capacity building initiative focused on organizational development, network development, and the creation of field building, standard practices and tools. Roots engages a cadre of 10 youth organizing groups from across the country, each of which receives multi-year general support grants.

2003 Roots Initiative Grants Awarded:

TOTAL: $350,000

Boston-Area Youth Organizing Project Boston, MA
To support and expand the training and campaign work of BYOP, including the creation of an Institute for Youth Leadership & Organizing to formalize training and share best practices with groups outside of BYOP; creation of a Young Organizing Fellow Program to work with members as they graduate; continued expansion of campaigns and chapter/membership; and strengthening of organizational infrastructure.
$35,000

Californians for Justice California (Statewide)
To support intergenerational youth organizing in CFJ’s statewide Campaign for Quality Education, involving local education reform efforts in San Diego, Long Beach, Fresno, San Jose and the East Bay; and to build youth power to stop the high school exit exam and advance a proactive state-level change in the areas of teacher quality and school funding.
$35,000

Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment South Carolina (Statewide)
To support a two-year project to reduce racial disparities in public schools; strengthen key program components, especially youth leadership development; incorporate youth organizing more fully in CAFÉ; and build relationships between African American and Latino youth.
$35,000

Colorado Progressive Coalition Denver, CO
To support youth organizing staff for Students 4 Justice, a youth-led, direct action organization that trains youth organizers and identifies youth leaders in Denver’s African-American, Mexican/Chicano/Latino, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander community to fight for racial justice in public education in their inner city high schools and neighborhoods.
$35,000

Kids First! Oakland, CA
To strengthen Kids First!’s ability to achieve lasting systems changes in Oakland’s public schools by empowering high school aged youth to build an active student membership base; increase student and parent decision-making power in schools; and work in partnership with adult allies to advance community-defined education reforms.
$35,000

Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Coalition Bronx, NY
To support the work of Sistas and Brothas United for issue organizing on education, land use and quality of life campaigns to secure tangible community improvements; develop the leadership skills of its members; build the civic participation of several hundred neighborhood teenagers; and contribute to larger movements for a more just society.
$35,000

Philadelphia Student Union Philadelphia, PA
To support the work of empowering young people to transform Philadelphia’s public schools into places that ensure all young people a quality education, and especially in playing a lead role in the fight for equitable funding and in the restructuring of Philadelphia’s high schools.
$35,000

Sisters In Action for Power Portland, OR
To support the development of the leadership and organizing skills of low-income women and girls of color through a three pronged organizing model, involving: Issue Campaigns; Leadership Development; and Modeling the Vision, a philosophy for self and community transformation.
$35,000

Southwest Youth Collaborative Chicago, IL
To support the Generation Y project, a youth organizing initiative currently working on its Higher Learning Campaign, focused on racial justice issues in Chicago’s public schools.
$35,000

Youth Organizing Communities Los Angeles, CA
To support building a power base through youth organizing and leadership development in East Los Angeles schools and to strengthen the development of its media activism and training component to popularize the message of educational justice.
$35,000

NATIONAL GRANTMAKING

TOTAL: $250,000

2003 Grants Awarded:

Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy & Leadership Oakland, CA
To support AYPAL in its city-wide work on school reform and its current focus on addressing immigrant criminalization and deportation.
$20,000

Center for Young Women’s Development San Francisco, CA
To support the Sistas for Change Organizing Project, and its efforts to create change in the juvenile justice system through building the power of young women involved in the juvenile justice system, on the streets and living in poverty.
$20,000

Chicago Youth United Chicago, IL
To support CYU’s efforts to unite youth from the North and South sides of Chicago to gain leadership skills and demand change in their communities around issues of school safety, police harassment, school support staff and access to higher education.
$20,000

Citizens for Community Improvement Des Moines, Iowa
To support the empowerment of Des Moines youth through organizing to make positive and systemic change on issues including community improvement and education reform.
$20,000

Coalition for Homelessness and Housing in Ohio Columbus, OH
To support the Youth Empowerment Project, which organizes and builds leadership among currently and formerly homeless youth to address issues they identify in breaking the cycle of homelessness.
$20,000

Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County Tunica, MS
To support Tunica Teens in Action to continue organizing around local and statewide public education policies in Mississippi.
$20,000

FIERCE New York, NY
To support the Save Our Space Campaign against gentrification and police violence on the Christopher Street Pier and in the West Village of New York City that adversely affects youth who are of color and/or LGBTSTQ and/or homeless.
$15,000

Indianola Parent Student Group Indianola, MS
To support efforts to build new accountable grassroots leadership and organization, involving students and parents, to impact the formation of public education policy in the Indianola public school district, fight racism in the school district, and create quality public educational opportunities for families in Indianola.
$20,000

Southwest Organizing Project Albuquerque, NM
To support SWOP’s Youth Rights Campaign, which engages youth in cultural, organizing, and leadership development and is currently focused on efforts to change citywide youth criminalization policies.
$20,000

UPROSE Brooklyn, NY
To support UPROSE and its Youth Justice Program, which continues to make demands for open and recreational space in Sunset Park Brooklyn as part of the Waterfront Reclamation Project.
$20,000

Young Women United Albuquerque, NM
To support YWU’s Circle of Strength to develop teenage women of color as critical thinkers and community leaders and to organize for comprehensive sex education in the Albuquerque public school system.
$15,000

Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice Bronx, NY
To support YMPJ’s organizing work on police reform and environmental justice.
$20,000

Youth United For Change Philadelphia, PA
To support the leadership development of 100 youth and their organizing efforts to push for student voice on the School District of Philadelphia’s Capital Improvement Program.
$20,000