YVAC- Youth Programming

The Young Voices Action Collective (YVAC) is black-youth led relational organizing and mutual aid collective; building power, sharing space, and making change across low-income  communities. YVAC’s mission to lift up young voices and drive social change on the issues that young people care about, most deeply informs our work. With a more intentional focus on relationship building, cultural organizing, and direct service. YVAC is a cohort of youth organizers and volunteers who consistently engage with young people about community needs, social justice issues, and upcoming elections. YVAC values youth leadership and investing in that through relationship building and story-telling. 

Amidst a global pandemic, civil turmoil, and systemic poverty:  All across the country young people are being faced with severe economic disparities— Issues ranging from the lack of affordable housing & displacement from campuses, food insecurity, unemployment, Covid-19, and so much more. Young people should not be forced to navigate these harsh systems alone. In schools in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Miami & Huntsville schools rarely have access to feed the entire student body. We’re flooded with testimonies of previously incarcerated youth struggling to re-engage with the economics of society. We've heard stories of kids coming home from school unfed. Stories of international students fighting for housing stability on college campuses and placing their visa at jeopardy. Loads of young adults not having access to fair paying jobs. And students at HBCUs encountering homelessness because of school conditions or lack of long term housing. 

YVAC’s organizing team--founded, facilitated, and managed by youth of color-- are dedicated to creating a “leaderful” movement, or a movement that gives other young people the opportunity to take ownership of the work they are doing and enhance their professional and leadership skills to affect change in their community. YVAC frequently circulates their “State of the Young” survey, an ever-changing collection of the societal issues that young people see as the most pressing and in need of urgent addressing. Through this survey, YVAC recruits new community leaders and provides them with the training and tools needed to address issues of community violence, abolition, food insecurity, immigration, mental health, etc. 

Our Hybrid Mutual Aid & Organizing approach differs from traditional political organizing (exploitive & Transactional) .   Through year-round events that provide requested social services, civics education sessions, community-led conversations with candidates, key stakeholders and relational-cultural gatherings; We aim to bridge the gap between young people, resources, and social-economic justice by refocusing our relationship with the community and how we advocate. We seek to meet basic needs for the youth who engage with our program.

Rally to the polls

STATE OF THE YOUNG

Hood 2 Hood