Oakland Takeover (365K PDF, requires free Adobe Acrobat®Reader) DataCenter's Youth Strategy Project is conducting in-depth research on national educational trends. Our first attempt at looking at school takeovers in California is specific to Oakland, but is deeply connected to larger national educational trends of incapacitating public education and disenfranchising poor and people of color communities.

Fall 2003

photo: miho kim

Building Youth Power through Strategic Research
DataCenter's Youth Strategy Project gave a training on strategic campaign research for the Youth Action Network Summer Youth Organizer Training series in San Diego, California. San Diego people of color border communities are on the frontlines of militarization, globalization and free trade, environmental and social injustices; young people of color in San Diego are intensely involved in the struggle for social justice. The workshop built on the skill sets of youth activists and organizers to do effective campaign research, to understand how research fits into a campaign, think strategically about how information can be used to further the goals of a campaign and practice these techniques through games and activities.

Promoting Affordable Public Housing in Portland
We are continuing to help Sisters in Action for Power develop their land equity campaign and fight against HOPE VI, a federal program that has accelerated the loss of public housing and has resulted in gentrification and displacement. Earlier, we provided research on why HOPE VI was created and examples of HOPE VI redevelopments, including places tenants organized against HOPE VI. As the next step in our research we created a power map for Sisters in Action, showing who are the major players in land development in Oregon.

Training at Seeds of FIRE Camp
The Highlander Research and Education Center’s “The Young and the Restless” youth program presented its Seeds of FIRE Youth Organizers Camp this summer. It is a one-year program to help support and encourage young people to become active in their communities. The first part is a week-long training for youth and adult allies at Highlander in Tennessee, which the DataCenter was a part of. We facilitated a research skills-building training for 25 youth from four different organizations working on various issues, from farm workers rights to LGBTQ issues. After the training, youth return to their communities to put what they learned into practice, with ongoing consultation and advice provided by Highlander staff.

It's Your Right to Know: A Research Guide on Juvenile Justice in California
Now online! Use it to quickly find criminal justice information, including juvenile justice information and statistics. Research topics include police misconduct and funding, prison expansion, incarceration demographics, criminal justice budgets, campaign contributions. A joint project of the DataCenter and Books not Bars. Use web version or download PDF (333K).

Youth Organizer Training Exchange
The DataCenter's Youth Strategy Project co-sponsored and helped organize the first Youth Organizer Training Exchange (YOTE) with the School of Unity and Liberation, Movement Strategy Center, and Youth Media Council. YOTE took place during a weekend retreat in Santa Cruz County in April. Almost 40 youth organizers with at least 2 years of experience attended from 10-15 different organizations from the Bay Area. The goals of YOTE are to provide intensive peer-led training on campaign, leadership, and organizational development; build stronger relationships between youth organizations in the Bay Area; and to facilitate dialogue on key issues and challenges facing youth organizers. Coming out of the exchange, the co-sponsors are working on implementing next steps for furthering the youth movement, such as ongoing strategy sessions and creating a best practices report on youth organizing. Many participants stated that this was one of the best conferences they've attended in a long time.

Speaking Out Against Cambodian Deportation
The reactionary Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) subjects all non-citizen immigrants to mandatory deportation if convicted of an aggravated felony, regardless if the crime was nonviolent or if time was already served in jail for it. In March 2002 the US conducted secret negotiations with Cambodia to forcibly deport Cambodian refugees. Over 3000 Cambodians - most of them living in the US since they were children - have received deportation notices and 56 Cambodians who have lived in the US for over 20 years have been deported. The US is now in secret negotiations with Viet Nam and Laos to deport refugees. In response, Southeast Asian grassroots organizations nationwide created the Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN). Its members are CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, PrYSM, Asian Freedom Project, Family Unity, Khmer Girls in Action, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Asians & Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment, and the Cambodian American Consortium. To help SEAFN and its allies form a more strategic national campaign to stop the deportation, the DataCenter is researching the relationships between the INS, Department of Justice, and Homeland Security to understand how deportation decisions are made. We are also researching past legislation proposed in response to IIRIRA to help SEAFN draft its own legislation.

Youth Fight High-Stakes Testing
Project HIP-HOP (Highways Into the Past- History, Organizing and Power) is a youth-led organization in Boston that takes youth from different backgrounds on civil rights tours through the South so youth can apply what they learn to advocate for rights in their communities. In 1998 the Massachusetts Board of Education unveiled the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. MCAS is a standardized test that all high school and middle school students must pass to graduate. Educators, parents, and students statewide oppose it, arguing that a student's full worth cannot be measured by one test, and, given the inequality in spending on public education, students of color and low-income students are at a great disadvantage. Project HIP HOP is helping lead a campaign against the MCAS. Through lobbying and direct action they are demanding that, before students are required to pass MCAS, the Department of Education enact the reforms promised in the Education Reform Act of 1993 and that the state execute a plan to guarantee equal educational opportunity. We assisted Project HIP-HOP by providing the views on MCAS of each member of the State Board of Education. We also helped connect Project HIP-HOP to other organizations fighting similar battles, such as Californians for Justice.

Promoting Affordable Public Housing in Portland
Sisters in Action for Power has developed a land equity campaign that focuses on how the trends of privatization and "revitalization" have resulted in gentrification and displacement, school closures, and the rapid depletion of public housing stock. To support Sisters in Action's land equity campaign, we provided information on HOPE VI, a federal program created to improve and "revitalize" public housing, but instead has accelerated its loss. By promoting "mixed-income communities," previous public housing has been redeveloped into market rentals. Also, we reviewed why HOPE VI was created and provided examples of HOPE VI redevelopments, including places tenants organized against HOPE VI. We also researched the heads of the Portland Development Commission and Portland Housing Authority. We found 4 federal cases where tenant associations challenged housing public authorities using different laws, such as Title VI, consent decrees, and National Housing Acts.

New Research Guide for Youth Organizing for Criminal Justice Reform
Books not Bars is trying to stop mass youth incarceration and reverse the current fiscal trade-off between education and incarceration. It has been fighting the building of a super jail for youth in Alameda County, and recently began touring California schools, colleges, and community centers to expose California's atrocious youth incarceration record and to promote alternatives. During the tour, they want to distribute resources to help students support local criminal and juvenile justice organizing. As one of these resources, they asked us to create a research guide for youth activists on criminal and juvenile justice research sources. The guide is organized by research topic and contains listings of California government agencies on the state, county, and municipal level that have information on everything from juvenile arrest rates to information about civilian police review boards. The guide covers investigating the police, prison expansion, criminal justice demographics, criminal justice funding, tips on filing public records requests, and a glossary of government agencies and departments. Check our website in the near future for an electronic copy of the guide!

Helping Youth Start a New Campaign in Southeast Los Angeles
We provided background information to help Youth EJ of Communities for a Better Environment in their campaign selection process in Southeast Los Angeles around sustainability issues affecting the community. Youth EJ is interested in learning about schools that are built on toxic sites and we found that 25 schools in their target cities are listed by the Department of Toxic Substances Control as being on contaminated or potentially contaminated sites. Youth EJ is also interested in working conditions for youth and we gave them statistics and analysis of what employment for young people in the Southeast LA area looks like. We also led an interactive training where youth members identified what information they need to move their campaign selection process forward and we helped them identify ways to find the information. We taught them tips on searching the Internet and demonstrated useful databases, such as the Census and Scorecard.

Youth Strategy Project

The Youth Strategy Project provides strategic research, consultation, and training for social, economic and environmental justice organizations. It is tailored to build the research and analytical skills of the next generation of movement leaders.

The project has established partnerships with technical assistance groups supporting youth organizing throughout the U.S. We also conduct research and develop trainings for community-based youth organizations and projects around the country.

Our youth work took on national prominence during the Proposition 21 battle in California. We were the primary information strategy provider to core youth organizations statewide. Our staff provided research and analysis that identified and profiled corporate targets, and helped develop the campaign strategy to confront the role of corporate money in politics. In collaboration with ColorLines Magazine, we developed No War On Youth, a web resource for youth activists. We also conducted research and information strategy trainings for lead organizers.