Youth organizing in California builds upon the historical legacy of young people who have been at the forefront of transformative movements for freedom and justice. Through the mid-90’s and early 2000’s young people fought back against propositions attacking youth and communities of color. Through the momentum galvanized by these fights, young people redefined models for youth-led campaigns, organizations, and movement culture.
In the decades that followed young people built youth organizing institutions that endured and adapted to changing political contexts while remaining deeply rooted in the needs of most impacted communities.
In November 2016, Movement Strategy Center and Californians for Justice convened a steering committee of twelve long-standing youth organizations (Californians for Justice, Chinese Progressive Association, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Fathers & Families of San Joaquin, Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network, InnerCity Struggle, Khmer Girls in Action, Mid-City CAN, Resilience Orange County, RYSE Center, Urban Peace Movement) to develop the vision, purpose, and initial goals for a statewide Youth Organizing Network. YO! Cali was publicly launched with 400 youth leaders and organizers at the Free Our Dreams Summit in September 2017.
Since then YO! Cali has weaved together nearly 100 youth organizing organizations across the state, supporting a thriving ecosystem of young people and organizers dreaming and fighting for a future where young people thrive. Just as in the early days of contemporary youth organizing during the right-wing dominance of California politics in the 1990s and early 2000s, we are once again at a pivotal moment, one filled with both great opportunity and serious risk. It is a time to deepen youth and multigenerational power, resist regressive attacks, and boldly advance our shared vision of a world in which many worlds fit—a world of liberation, wholeness, and abundance.
