Justice Platforms
Since yli’s founding in 1991, young people in our programs have led thousands of storytelling and policy campaigns for positive change. Using their deep, first-hand knowledge of their communities and the social justice lens sharpened at yli, these youth have identified and addressed a myriad of social issues that impact them.
We have a different kind of consciousness, openness – we have a broader scope for understanding each other. From what I see, we’re a lot more open minded, inclusive, and willing to fight to make sure we can be ourselves.
Stephanie Gurtel
Our youth – perhaps better than any generation before them – know that oppressive systems do not operate in isolation, and their campaigns reflect their deeply intersectional analysis. At the same time, identifying key issue areas allows them to build strategy and zero in on specific targets. Our young people are currently focusing on six primary Platforms: Economic, Education, Environmental, Gender, Health, and Racial Justice.
We are also working internally, as a collective of social justice-minded people, to dismantle the oppressive systems in which we are all embedded. Read more about that in the section entitled, Justice at yli.
The Justice Platforms will forever be a work in progress, in constant revision to better reflect and articulate the vision for a just world that our youth are bringing into being.