Youth Activism: Leaving Footprints in the Sand

• In Event: Activism in Education and Community: Youth + Adults = Partners for Change

Abstract

Objectives
According to London (2007), “‘Youth voice’ has joined ‘community participation’ and ‘grassroots development’ as one of the most important objectives of democratic practice in the United States” (p. 407). By working in concert, youth organizing has helped to strengthen communities and is part of the broader struggle for social justice to combat institutional oppression (Ginwright, Cammarota, & Noguera, 2005; Kornbluh, Ozer, Allen, & Kirshner, 2015). In fact, there is no greater need for fostering social awareness and facilitating social change than in the justice system where minoritized youth are overrepresented, and face more severe punishments and longer sentences (Alexander, 2011; Stevenson, 2014). Leaders Organizing 2 Unite & Decriminalize (LOUD) members have worked towards creating a more socially just criminal justice system through youth activism. Thus, this paper seeks to address: 1) How does youth activism empower system-involved youth?

Theoretical Framework
We utilize a sociopolitical consciousness framework that is influenced by critical, culturally relevant, revitalizing, and sustaining pedagogies since they promote critical consciousness and social transformation, fight oppression, inequities and colonization, foster emancipatory visions of schooling, and demand critical reflexivity (Freire, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 2009; McCarty & Lee, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2014). The ultimate aim of sociopolitical consciousness is to help the oppressed “perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves” (Freire, 2000, p. 83). Therefore, this framework explains how youth activism builds on marginalized and minoritized youth’s uncanny ability to recognize systemic oppression and to engage in social action to stop it.

Methodology
Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is defined by social action, challenges traditional research paradigms, valorizes local knowledge, and empowers marginalized youth to generate research findings to enact social change (London, 2007; Mirra, Filipiak, & Garcia, 2015).

Data Collection and Analysis
For three years, the first author co-facilitated LOUD meetings once a week with 10 youth (Latino/as, black, and Native American) with Jasmine, a community organizer and a graduate student. Each meeting was audio recorded, transcribed and coded. Ethnographic fieldnotes were taken and each youth participated in three semi-structured interviews. Inductive analysis and the constant comparative method were utilized to systematically code data, develop categories, and address issues of connectedness (Huberman & Miles, 1998).

Findings
Several system-involved LOUD youth said on multiple occasions that the most important aspect of their research was “Making a difference in someone’s life because you were giving them a voice” (FN 5.26.16). They felt empowered conducting focus group interviews in the same venue (i.e., the detention center) where they were once incarcerated by helping detention youth find their voice. Furthermore, they presented their findings nationwide to key criminal justice stakeholders, spoke to legislators to end punitive measures, and were directly involved in changing the state probation agreement.

Scholarly Significance
Cassie, a Latina LOUD member, summarized best the importance of our work, “I’m leaving footprints where footprints are hard to find”. She made this statement while we were preparing for a national presentation. She exemplified how LOUD members found their voice and became powerful advocates for incarcerated youth.

Authors

• Andrea Abeita, The University of New Mexico

• Shiv Raj Desai, University of New Mexico