“I want to help my community inside and outside the school,” declared Ramses Gonzalez, a student who arrived in the United States just last year and a participant in a recent youth organizing workshop series led by Karen Robinson, Program Director of Human Rights Education at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.  

This three part workshop series helps students do just that. During the workshop, which met three times over the course of three months, 35 students from two New York City public high schools learned about human rights, principles of organizing, and how to develop concrete action plans for their community campaigns. These workshops empower the next generation of human rights defenders to assess the needs of their communities and take effective action.  

In the first workshop, students learned about human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and engaged in community mapping, an exercise that helps participants identify spaces in their communities where human rights are promoted or where they are violated, such as in healthcare, community non-profits, and the justice system. In small groups, students then determined which issues are most important to them and what change they wanted to bring about. 

The two issues most important to this group of students were gender inequality and immigrant rights. American Academy for Software Engineering (AASE) students reflected that there is a culture of misogyny in their primarily male school which makes female students feel marginalized. Students at the Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language (MAAL), many of whom are recently arrived themselves, noted the lack of resources for newly arrived families to help them navigate daily life in the city.  

To aid students in setting short-term and long-term changemaking goals to address these issues, the second workshop highlighted effective organizing strategies. Students brainstormed potential targets and allies for their campaigns and learned the difference between objectives and goals. Actionable tactics, campaign strategies, evaluation strategies, and timelines were identified in this workshop. 

In the last workshop of the series, the students finalized their campaign strategies, developed timelines for their projects, and presented their ideas. Over the course of the next year, the students at MAAL will complete a newcomer brochure that includes guides for important services such as transportation and shelters, key phrases needed to navigate the city, and information about how to apply for college. AASE students will work with administration to host town hall meetings about the gender issues they see in the school and will also lead theater workshops that reenact these problems in order to open dialogue about how to respond. Their goal is to improve school culture, empower boys to speak out about misogynistic behavior, and provide a space that encourages female voices and ideas. 

Jeyra Montanez, a student at MAAL, testified to the impact of the workshops, stating that now she feels she “can speak [her] voice.” She continued, “Everything that I don’t think is fair, I am going to speak out.”

RFK Human Rights will continue to provide support for students as they work to make their projects a reality. Karen Robinson, the organizer and facilitator of this workshop series, noted that one success of the program was how quickly students identified the issues and developed viable strategies.

“This work is needed and welcomed, and provides valuable training for students to do what they need to do,” noted Karen. 

If you want to lead youth organizing workshops at your school or in your community, download the youth organizing manual from our website or contact Karen at robinson@rfkhumanrights.org.

Students can also sign up to participate in our fall youth organizing series, starting September 19th, by completing the application form. We look forward to making good trouble with you!