RFK Young Leaders

RFK Young Leaders is a network of youth advocates on college campuses around the nation. The program empowers students to become politically active and to advance human rights and social justice in their communities.


Each chapter of RFK Young Leaders is student-founded and student-run. Through workshops and coaching, RFK Human Rights provides the training, tools, and resources students need to organize community action and, in the process, gain skills and experience that prepare them to rise through local systems of power. These students have led initiatives including get-out-the-vote drives, free HIV testing on campuses, and clothing drives to benefit shelters for homeless youth.

Campaign toolkits

Each school year, RFK Young Leaders chapters design a yearlong campaign focused on mobilizing peers to take action, build power, and participate in advocacy through organizing. The resources in these toolkits help support and shape those campaigns.

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Campus ambassadors

Campus ambassadors are student activists who work within their individual chapters and directly with RFK Human Rights staff.

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Start a new chapter

RFK Young Leaders chapters are led by students. Throughout the year, they host programs and events to educate their peers about human rights, advance social justice at their schools, and provide opportunities for connection and partnership. Here’s how to start a chapter at your school.

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JOIN A CHAPTER

Find out if there's an existing Young Leaders chapter on your campus.

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MEET OUR EXPERTS

Kristopher Sharp

RFK Young Leaders Program Associate

Adnan Karim

Managing Director of Human Rights Education

Our partners

Generation Titans

Partnered with RFK Human Rights for the Titan Generator at SXSW in 2019.

twitter.com/gentitans

International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC)

Partnered with RFK Human Rights for the Titan Generator at SXSW in 2019.

indigenousyouth.org

March For Our Lives

Partnered with RFK Human Rights for the Titan Generator at SXSW in 2019.

marchforourlives.com

Net Impact

Partnered with RFK Human Rights on a series of workshops focused on mobilizing college students to become "election advocates" through actions that promoted voting by mail.

netimpact.org

Trans United

Partnered with RFK Human Rights on our "Street Rights" series in the summer of 2020.

transunitedfund.org

United We Dream

Partnered with RFK Human Rights for the Titan Generator at SXSW in 2019.

unitedwedream.org

FOR MORE PERSPECTIVE

CAMPAIGN—

Funds for Freedom

Working with Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, we’ve invested $1 million to bail people from jails at the height of the pandemic, sparing hundreds from the unjust cruelties of pretrial detention.

CAMPAIGN—

Mass Bail Out

In October 2018, RFK Human Rights freed more than 100 people from New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail who were incarcerated pretrial because they couldn’t afford their bail. The effort highlighted how money bail discriminates against people of color and those experiencing poverty—generating unprecedented demand for reform.

Help Us Protect Human Rights

Please give now. Your contribution will make a difference in the critical effort to achieve equal rights for all.