$30,000 / 2014
New Orleans, LA
Minh Nguyen, Executive Director
Website: www.vayla-no.org
This $30,000 renewal grant will enable Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) to organize to address educational inequities and environmental degradation in the multi-racial communities of New Orleans East. VAYLA’s Raise Your Hand campaigns are developed by young people and initiated to promote policies that increase access to excellent public education and a healthy environment for young people who are racially, geographically and/or linguistically marginalized. Over the next year, VAYLA will continue to fight for full funding for student transportation to Ben Franklin High School; increase funding for school translation and language access programs; and work with Orleans Parrish School Board and Recovery School District to reopen Sarah Reed High School as local community charter school in 2015. VAYLA youth will also be working on a media campaign to draw attention to VAYLA’s advocacy work for keeping failing schools from closing.