Edward W. Hazen Foundation
New York City
www.hazenfoundation.org
2013 Youth Grants
Albany Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago, $30,000 Renewal Grant to continue its organizing work to end out-of-school suspensions for minor offenses and arrests for misdemeanors, ensure the implementation of the Illinois DREAM Act and DREAM Fund, increase state funding toward youth employment, limit CPS use of high-stakes testing and counter CPS school-closings strategies, preserve affordable housing for low-income families of color and push for comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level. APNC is an active member of the Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE), Community Organizing for Democracy in Education (CODE), Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) and Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights collaboratives.
CADRE, Los Angeles, $30,000 renewal grant to develop parent leadership from within South Central Los Angeles communities to hold public schools accountable for providing quality opportunities to learn, regardless of race and class and end school push-outs/dropouts. Over the next year, CADRE will continue to focus on proper UTLA implementation of SWPBS trainings with the goal of reducing District suspensions by 50%. CADRE continues to strengthen its capacity and build relationships with other organizations through participation in CPER and local and national Dignity in Schools campaigns.
Californians For Justice, Oakland, $30,000 renewal grant to promote adequate and equitable school funding for all students in California to ensure that high school graduates are 100% prepared for college and career and all high school students attend green and healthy schools. Over the next year, CFJ will continue to ensure that A-G courses are offered by the district and students have support around new academic requirements in San Jose. CFJ Oakland will also work on implementation of the victories of “No Knowledge, No College” campaign and launch their next campaign. In Long Beach and Fresno, CFJ will escalate efforts to win victories on their “Food for Thought” and “Education without Barriers” campaigns. CFJ also continues to play important roles in the statewide CQE alliance, the national Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) and other regional collaboratives.
Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, San Francisco, $30,0000 renewal grant to support youth-led intergenerational drive for equity, with particular focus on education in San Francisco through the Campaign for College and Career for All. Coleman Advocates plays a lead role in the citywide San Francisco Rising Alliance of low-income and working class communities of color that have identified public education, employment, housing, healthcare, sanctuary and civic engagement as key components of an integrated social change strategy for a just and liveable city. Coleman’s youth organizing work will help increase academic opportunities and support for African American, Latino and Asian & Pacific Islander students, so that all SFUSD students are fully prepared for college, union training or living wage work. Over the next year Coleman Advocates will continue to organize for the allocation of additional resources for low performing schools, improved academic support, implementation of restorative justice practices, to promote the National Student Bill of Rights, the creation of affordable housing and to contribute to the development of local, regional and national movements for education, economic and racial justice, with low-income youth of color in leadership.
Innercity Struggle, Los Angeles, $30,000 renewal grant will support ongoing organizing efforts in six critical areas – college access, student dropouts/pushouts, discipline policies, family engagement, food justice, school funding/school redesign – that will move towards high quality, equitable education for students and help to transform the social and economic conditions for the majority Latino residents of East Los Angeles who are disproportionately impacted by lack of resources and quality learning. Over the next year ICS will continue to focus on full implementation of A-G Life Prep Resolution in Eastside schools, positioning Esteban Torres High School as a model community school, ending the punitive disciplinary procedures in Eastside high schools, achieving a 100% graduation rate at Mendez Learning Center and educating and mobilizing Eastside voters.
Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Chicago, $30,000 renewal grant to organize youth and adults in low-income predominantly Black residents in the Mid-South neighborhoods of Chicago to improve the quality of neighborhood schools and increase high school graduation rates. KOCO parent and youth leaders organize for the creation of an elected school board, stronger local school councils, and community driven school transformation processes. Over the next year, KOCO will continue to actively working with parent, youth, and community leaders in the neighborhood and in coalition with other organizations around Chicago to impact public policy in relation to quality education for all students.
National Women’s Law Center, Washington, D.C., $5,000 to develop a strategy to address school drop out by African American girls.
Padres Y Jovenes Unidos, Denver, $30,000 renewal grant to continue to build youth leadership and power toward ending the School to Jail Track in Colorado, including intensive reform in Denver, increasing Denver Public School (DPS) accountability around disciplinary policy, continuing the College Prep for All initiative and continue their support for a range of state and national initiatives to increase immigrant student access to higher education , including campaigning for and winning in-state tuition at the state level and supporting the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level. Over the last grant period Padres & Jovenes won a MOU between DPS and the Denver Police Department that limits police involvement in minor school offenses, passage of a bill (SB 46) that will significantly reduce referrals and arrests by law enforcement in schools and reduce suspensions, expulsions, and referrals and won the passage of CO Asset Bill to provide in-state tuition for undocumented students.
Philanthropy New York, New York City, $10,000 to support the 2013 Education Reform Review Initiative.
Voces de la Frontera, Milwaukee, $30,000 renewal grant to continue the Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES) initiative to organize as an inter-ethnic youth organizing effort to increase black-brown unity and advance racial justice, increase immigrant-rights and supports for undocumented students, to fight for implementation of the YES authored Student Bill of Rights at the school, district and community levels and to train and educate YES leaders on social justice issues across the state. As part of its civic engagement program YES trained 60 young people for GOTV canvassing for the recent gubernatorial recall and presidential elections. YES also organized a summit of over 125 students to create a Milwaukee public school board bill addressing school budget cuts and learning environment. The YES program will continue to leverage its good relationships with civil-rights groups, faith-based coalitions, teacher organizations and national partners such as the United We Dream network and the NAACP, to build even stronger multi-racial social justice organizing campaigns for youth.
Youth Justice Coalition, Los Angeles, $30,000 renewal grant to organize young people in or affected by the juvenile and criminal justice systems. YJC will work to end disproportionate contact with law enforcement and confinement of people of color prioritizing five campaigns: impacting the conditions of confinement; challenging LA County’s War on Gangs; reducing LA County’s over reliance on incarceration in order to re-allocate resources to community-based alternatives; repealing Juvenile Life Without Parole; challenging LA County’s pushout and discipline policies that enforce the school-to-jail track. During the last grant period, YJC secured a first victory in its plan for a comprehensive prison re-entry reform – a commitment from the county that all youth returning home from juvenile halls and camps will be released with their birth certificate, fought for improved conditions at L.A.’s Probation camps, reduced truancy ticket fines, participated in a class action law suit that successfully ended the practice of curfew violations for all injunctions in the city of Los Angeles and has supported the California Assembly Bill AB420 and several supreme court cases that have successfully challenged Life-Without-Parole sentences for youth.
Youth United for Community Action, East Palo Alto, California, $30,000 renewal grant will assist YUCA in providing a safe space to develop and support a core of young people in East Palo Alto to organize on environmental, economic justice and immigrant rights issues. Over the next year, YUCA will organize to include community input around issues of housing, employment and environmental justice in current City planning and make community input a formal process in the development of the City’s General plan. YUCA is also organizing young people to stop the unfair practice of ICE holds on juveniles in nearby San Mateo County, creating economic opportunities for undocumented youth, and supporting the larger national, statewide, and regional efforts for immigrant rights.