New Research on the Impacts of Youth Organizing

FCYO, along with its co-sponsors, The Aspen Institute, The California Endowment, The Cricket Island Foundation, The Edward W. Hazen Foundation and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), invited youth organizers and funders to a webinar on introducing our latest report: Transforming Young People and Communities: New Findings on the Impacts of Youth Organizing. This webinar took place on March 2, 2018.

This webinar highlighted emerging research across various studies on how involvement in youth organizing contributes to the social-emotional and academic development of young people in powerful ways, while also promoting their civic and community engagement, particularly for young people living in low-income communities and communities of color. This new research is beginning to indicate the engaging young people in organizing to address issues in their communities is in fact one of the most effective ways to support their holistic development.

Our panelists discussed their research, lessons learned and examples of how both organizers and funders can use this work as a tool to advocate for youth organizing. Panelists were

• Veronica Terriquez, Associate Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Cruz
• Roderick Watts, Professor of Psychology, CUNY
• Ben Kirshner, Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development and Faculty Director, University of Colorado Boulder
• Rossmery Zayas, Youth Organizer, Communities for a Better Environment

FCYO would like to thank the funders who supported this project: The Atlantic Philanthropies, The California Endowment, The Cricket Island Foundation and The Edward W. Hazen Foundation.

This report was written and researched by Seema Shah, Will Buford and Eric Braxton. A special thank you to Rod Watts, Ben Kirshner, Rashida Govan, Veronica Terriquez and Seema Shah for their support in developing the research that this report is based on, and to Lori Bezahler and Albert Maldonado for their support and guidance. FCYO would like to thank the funders who supported this project