Amount: $25,000
2015
Philadelphia, PA
Website: youthunitedforchange.org
YUC’s mission is to support low-income youth, primarily youth of color, to organize and advocate powerfully on their own behalf for adequately funded high quality education that meets their needs and sets them on a path to success in their civic and personal lives. A long-time Hazen grantee, YUC has won significant victories in improving Philadelphia’s disciplinary processes and is a leading participant in campaigns for equitable funding and local control of schools and against privatization. More recently, its youth have become engaged in work around Food Justice, identifying low quality and junk food in the schools and the food deserts of their communities as aspects of discrimination and the school to prison pipeline. YUC has undergone key staff transitions in the last year, with a new executive director at the end of 2014 and three new organizers in 2015. The new director and organizers are working to ensure that key elements of youth development are fully integrated into YUC’s training and activities. Hazen’s renewal grant will support the strengthening of this work and enable YUC to pursue campaigns focused on school discipline and climate reform, education equity, and food justice.