Youth Organizing

BPNC Believes In Empowering Youth To Be Leaders And Organizers Within Their Schools And Communities.

BPNC believes in empowering youth to be leaders and organizers with their school and communities. We engage youth on the southwest side in issue-based campaigns at the school, city, state, and national level and co-create youth-centered spaces where young people can lead campaigns that impact their daily life.

Youth organizing is open to any youth ages 10-24 on the southwest side of Chicago. You do not need to be a student currently enrolled in school to participate.

Here are the ways to be involved:

Monthly meetings - open to any youth on the southwest side to learn more about our organizing, build power with other youth, and get more involved in our campaigns.
School Voice Committees - Open to students at Curie High School, Brighton Park Elementary, Burroughs Elementary, and Davis Elementary, SVC supports youth to create a mini campaign, with the goal of learning to organize. Previous projects have been beautifying the school, advocating for a student wellness room, and creating school-wide attendance incentives.
School Year Fellowships - School year fellowships are open to all youth leaders and organizers and serve an opportunity for youth to deepen their organizing skills around different issue-based campaigns.
Summer Organizing Fellowship - Summer organizing fellowship is open to all youth members, leaders, and organizers. It is a 6 week program where students will receive political education, learn more about issue-based organizing, and engage in things such as canvassing, press conferences, one-on-ones and more.

BPNC is a member of the National Campaign for Police Free Schools and the Alliance for Educational Justice.

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) is the leading organization for the Youth Healing Chi campaign.

After a more than 5 year struggle to cancel the contract between the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools, the youth-led campaign CopsOutCPS won! The campaign secured a unanimous vote from the 2024 Chicago Board of Education, authorizing the removal of School Resource Officers from Chicago Public Schools. This win marked another step towards fully removing policing practices from our schools, and investing in true systems of healing and care for Chicago youth and families.

This win demonstrated the power of what is possible.

We are a citywide campaign created by young people, for young people. We are demanding a world that chooses care over punishment and healing over harm. We have an opportunity to develop a new vision of care and wellness outside of these carceral approaches by listening to, affirming, and following the lead of our young people and communities.

For more information, please contact Lead Youth Organizer, Vanessa Dominguez @vdominguez@bpncchicago.org

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Nutrition and healthy eating habits discussion

BPNC Believes In Empowering Youth To Be Leaders And Organizers Within Their Schools And Communities.