YADI - Youth Activism Design Institute
Rationale
Youth organizing is in a critical moment. Youth organizers are ready to reframe social justice issues in their own language, ready to redesign social justice work with their own tools. Youth helped put Barack Obama in the White House, at least temporarily shifting a traditional “us vs. the establishment” organizing paradigm. However, the difficult realities of life for them and their peers keeps them well aware that they can’t sit back with a “now we’ve won” stance. Their friends are still getting shot; their family members still struggle to make ends meet. They’ll always step up to speak out to city officials, to walk with mothers for peace, to mobilize for quality schools. But they’re also ready to find new ways to describe—and fight for—their lives, and to make adults of all stripes recognize their vision for the future.
current programming
Summer Internship Program:
Each summer YADI takes to the streets with 15 summer interns working to find creative new ways to think about and address social violence in their communities. Whether challenging the unwritten rules of the stare down, aka "the grill" (see photo), or shifting perceptions of a community through playing Big Urban Games in the streets, we use public interventions to shift how folks think and feel about youth, violence and their neighborhoods.
YADI Seminar Series
An interactive monthly training series that brings youth organizers together from across Boston (and beyond) to develop and test effective interventions.
Creative Leadership Development
Hands-on workshops including low and high tech tools that youth organizers can use to enhance their campaigns.
Technical Assistance
The Design Studio also offers individuated TA for programs who want to vet their ideas or expand how they're seeing a problem, building their campaign or reaching their audience.
partners
YADI works with over 20 youth organizing and community youth groups across Boston, and we always welcome more. We also want to acknowledge our in-depth partnerships with the GOTCHA Collaborative, the Boston Area Youth Organizing Project (BYOP) and the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (BAGLY).
Funding
YADI is made possible by individual donations and the generous support of the Barr Foundation and Surdna Foundation.