Category: Raising the Bar

The Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) has challenged its more than 4,000 student population to become more civically engaged and to be a part of the growing millennial voting community. As a result of this call to action from Executive Director Sheila Venson, YCCS launched the Civic Engagement Challenge. Out of this program, a group of students dubbed the Global Majority Youth Rising (GMYR), led the charge and hosted a successful youth-driven Gubernatorial Forum and Voting Drive during the 2017-2018 academic school-year.

This student-organized and led gubernatorial forum featured a panel of Illinois Governor and Lt. Governor candidates that included Ra Joy, Litesa Wallace, and Tio Hardiman. The forum commenced at the YCCS Greater West Town campus located on Chicago’s west side. The themes of Immigration, intra-communal violence, education, and policing took center stage as the poised student moderator, Chyann McQueen of CCA Academy, firmly held the governor panelist to their allotted response time.

“This was the best forum I have ever attended,” said Lt. Gubernatorial candidate, Litesa Wallace, shared with a group of blushing GMYR students. With only 3 percent of millennial voter turnout in the last election, this event marked a significant shift in youth engagement regarding voter participation.

A major highlight of this event included a voter registration drive that targeted the hundreds of potential student voters among the YCCS network’s 19 campuses. Student representatives announced their campuses’ achievement in registering student voters. With placards in-hand, each campus proudly displayed the number of registrants they were able to secure. “Youth Connection Leadership Academy…210!” , “Latino Youth High School…196!”, As the announcements rang out the unwavering peer support filled the room as all the students shouted in harmony “We Vote!”. A credit to the YCCS organization, in total the voter drive registered over 1,400 new voters. The GMYR efforts to garner new voter registrants will continue into the summer expanding into the communities surrounding its 19 campuses throughout Chicago’s south and west sides.

Phillip Peterson
Youth Connection Charter School

For YCCS students, the future is now.  What they partake in today will reflect in the health and wellness of their communities tomorrow. Their path to a bright, productive and healthy future depends on their ability to navigate and actively participate in democracy.  One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to have students actualize their potential and to know their value as a civically responsible citizen.

Unfortunately, too many young people are disconnected from the democracy happening around them every day. If they’re lucky, they have an adult in their lives who discusses politics with them, or occasionally watch the news to keep up with current events that are unfolding within the government and with national policy.  

YCCS doesn’t rely on happenstance, but instead is very intentional about civically engaging youth and activating their desire for social justice and transformative change.  It is essential to empower and provide youth with a platform for their collective voices and concerns to be heard. It is incumbent upon us to educate them about the processes and functions of government, in addition to the importance for them to vote and to hold their elected officials accountable.

It has been inspiring to experience students’ development firsthand. Students have shifted from not believing  their voice and vote matter, to facilitating voter registration drives and hosting a governors’ forum, galvanizing their peers to become civically engaged.

Global Majority Youth Rising (GMYR) interns will continue to build upon their progress and momentum over the summer and into the fall, training on voter education. They plan to register new student voters and educate their peers about local, state and national politics, and how young people and communities of color are impacted by them.  

The streets will witness youth leading the charge to bring positive change to their schools and communities. The streets will know another future is possible, one that doesn’t involve violence, poverty, and incarceration.

 

Kofi Ademola

Civic Engagement Consultant

Youth Connection Leadership Academy (YCLA) has committed to actively transform the narrative of our students through education to reflect a more accurate and historically honest perspective of past and current realities. We are vigilant to prevent the distortion of students’ histories and identities through the voices of oppression that do not protect the authentic social well-being of all peoples.

At YCLA, we have taken advantage of the Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) Civic Engagement Challenge to explore, investigate, and study social justice and civic engagement issues that affect our students. This year, the YCLA civic engagement team focused on the closing of neighborhood schools in Englewood. They prepared a plan of execution, vetted the idea with the student body and school leaders, and came up with various steps to take action. At the community level, they conducted interviews, took pictures of the neighborhood conditions, and then postulated multiple questions to determine methods of intervention and education. The primary issue at the heart of our exploration was why the schools were closing. Students persisted by disseminating their research on the historical truth and political justifications about school closings to neighborhood residents. For instance, did you know that a school can’t be closed and reopened without being evaluated for maintenance costs? If the maintenance cost is less than closing the building, the school funds must be used for upkeep and to repair whatever is needed.

This project gave students, and me, the opportunity to establish relationships within the school and community that transcended all expectations. We learned more about ourselves as partners with the school community. We enjoyed learning and grew to understand when we work together, how we create the realities of educational progress and community building.

Dr. Ernest Gonzalez

YCLA Civic Engagement Campus Leader