A Project of YAOTL

Open letter: A right to a safe and civil education March 23, 2010

March 22, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
As you may know, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and their allies in the non-profit sector are working on the Illinois Safe and Civil Schools Act, a legislative effort to address youth-on-youth violence in Illinois’ schools. As a collection of youth-centered organizing initiatives deeply committed to the struggle against violence, we would like to voice our position that any effort aiming to address school violence must be based on principles of restorative and transformative justice.
The undersigned organizations believe unconditionally that every student has the right to a safe and civil education; however we are concerned that legislation such as this could lead to the creation of “zero-tolerance” policies which reinforce the school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our youth and “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies are often the first step in a young person’s journey through that pipeline. These policies ignore circumstances around violence, fail to address conditions which create violence, and often disproportionately target marginalized students whom such efforts are stated to protect.
Furthermore, policies which focus on punishment rather than change can only deal with violence after the fact and put young people into artificial categories of bully and victim. Dealing with school violence in this individualized nature ignores the systemic violence which marginalized students face daily. By failing to recognize the inherent violence of a heterosexist curriculum, gendered dress codes, school closings, militarization, and other forms of systemic violence, this legislation has the possibility to divert energy and resources away from efforts to change the culture of schools and truly end violence. (more…)

Sk8 in the Hood Auction 8/22-8/29 August 23, 2009

Sk8 in the Hood Auction

LVEJO in partnership with Sk8 Gallery announce the Sk8 in the Hood Auction whose mission is to build a bridge between the  the artist’s community and LVEJO .Through this collaboration we intend to bring awareness to our communities about the environmental justice issues which effect us all through environmentally themed shows .

~25% of all the profits generated by the sales of the boards will go to LVEJO with some artist donating all the profits earned by the sale of their work.

~The Gallery will continue to travel throughout different venues in the chicagoland area and the hope is to contribute to need for awareness of  Environmental Justice issues on a  national scope.

~Sk8 Gallery is a project  sponsored by Rock N Jewels.

Each of these is on auction at E-bay currently, for only one week!  Ends Saturday the 29th of August.

Clicking on the link below for any skateboard deck, goes safely to the “Active” auction page for this item on E-bay.

This auction is for hand painted uniquely themed skateboard decks only. No other hardware.
The number (#) is the matching E-bay item number

Third Annual Skate in the Hood Jam! August 13, 2009

Download this flier

           We hope this message finds you in good spirits.  Come to Little
Village this Saturday for Our Third Annual Skate in the Hood Jam.  Check out
the flier.  Come in the morning for family events and to learn about
community organizations.  The skate competition will start at 1:30 bands
will play at 4 till 8 and a DJ will bless the tables till 10 pm.
Peace and blessings
YAOTL (young activists organizing as today's leaders)

"La lucha por justicia corre por mis venas, corazon acelerrado con el ritmo
de mi gentes" 

"We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to
change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good
ends"- Mary McLeod Bethune

"We must strive to become good ancestors" 

Check out the flier

Check out the flier |  

Download this flier #1

Marisol Becerra | Power Shift 09 March 12, 2009

In 2003, Marisol Becerra volunteered with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) to map and inventory the toxins found within 150 blocks of her predominantly Mexican-American community, Little Village in Chicago. Marisol was enraged to discover that in Little Village more than 60,000 youth in a two-mile radius of the Fisk and Crawford Coal Power Plants are forced to breathe air that violates EPA standards. She was inspired to act, she said, “in order to shut down these coal power plants, build more parks, and clean up the toxics. We must organize more people to stand up and fight.” Her first step was launching the youth branch of LVEJO — Youth Activists Organizing as Today’s Leaders, YAOTL. Based on the data Marisol collected, YAOTL collaborated with Chicago-based Open Youth Networks to devise OurMap of Environmental Justice, an interactive online map that includes 12 youth-created videos, descriptions of toxic sites, and gang territory delineations. With this map, Marisol educated her community about local environmental injustice and motivated them to become involved in campaigns. The map uses poignant facts and videos to educate about the different pollutants and contaminants in Little Village that cause 41 premature deaths and 550 emergency room visits annually. In 2008, Marisol was awarded a Brower Youth Award for her commitment and work.

Upcoming Event! July 30, 2008

Media Training for the Youth July 8, 2008

Media training during the week of spring break.YAOTL took a week long media training facilitated by Marisol Becerra (LVEJO board co-chair and co-founder of El Cilantro-the youth newsletter) and Mindy Faber (Open Youth Networks). The youth learned how toconduct interviews with community members, document their stories to address and highlight environmental justice issues and how to edit videos. Mindy Faber facilitated workshops on how to embed video taken during the CATT (Community Asset Toxic Tour) onto a google map; creating a digital environmental justice map of Little Village. They started a blog to showcase their articles and poems from El Cilantro digitally and their videos. The blog will serve as a digital platform for young people to express their concerns and organize across issues affecting young people locally, regionally, nationally and even globally.

Second Annual FCYO

Two YAOTL members attended the second annual FCYO convening in the Bay Area in late April. Eleven national environmental justice organizations with strong youth leadership bodies were granted funds and brought together to share strategies and best practices and to build a platform for a youth led environmental justice movement. Brenda and Juan facilitated a hands on activity to illustrate the concept of environmental justice. They shared their environmental justice map as a tool to strengthen the movement.