Grantee Spotlight: Seattle Young People’s Project

SYPP World Map

Many Social Justice Fund members probably spent a typical sunny Friday afternoon during their youth playing basketball at the park, or catching a movie. But on a recent afternoon, 20 or so youth were learning how to effectively communicate a message to the media as part of Seattle Young People’s Project’s (SYPP) Summer Youth Organizing Institute.

SYPP is a youth-led, adult-supported organization that empowers youth to express themselves and to take action on the issues that affect their lives. Since its founding in 1992, over 2,000 young people working with SYPP have arranged speaking engagements, hosted community forums, met with teachers, administrators and politicians, coordinated conferences, led rallies, organized press conferences and published “zines.” SYPP concentrates its work on young people of color, low-income youth, and queer youth that are 13 to 18 years old.

Their Summer Youth Organizing (YO!) Institute is a week-long training for and by youth. Topics included “The Media,” “Imperialism and Colonization,” “Undoing Oppression,” “Youth Organizing 101 (How to Start a Campaign),” and “Revolutionary Art (Hip Hop and Spoken Word).” On a recent afternoon, we found some attendees eager to talk about the institute and SYPP:

Mina, who has participated in SYPP’s Young Women’s Conference for 3 years, appreciates the workshops on heterosexism and homophobia. She says, “I learned political stuff you don’t learn in school.”

Jovonna heard about SYPP’s efforts protesting the WASL as an exit exam and got involved, now reporting, “I’m in love!”

Sasha has been commuting to the institute all the way from Everett each morning by bus. She says “I love it here! It’s like a breath of fresh air.”

Rocio, a “PROUD Mexican for change” (she insisted on the bold capital letters) is excited that SYPP can help her organize against the sexism and homophobia in Mexican culture while promoting its positive aspects.

Milly says “SYPP has changed my life. It’s a space where you can truly be yourself.”

Yasmeen Perez, a co-director at SYPP who has been on staff for three years and a member for eight years, explained that because both the leadership and membership of SYPP is comprised of youth, financial resources can be hard to come by. Social Justice Fund’s support has helped SYPP bring in more youth and kick off the Educational Justice Campaign.

SYPP’s achievements include documenting sexual harassment in schools and using this information to lobby the superintendent to change the sexual harassment policy; opening Seattle’s first Youth Art Gallery; and getting Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States allowed as a teaching text in 11th grade history classes. Their current Educational Justice Campaign will remove the WASL as a graduation requirement, in part by mobilizing youth to track who is passing the WASL and who is not and reporting their findings to the school board. SYPP youth are also organizing a “Hip Hop Jam Against the Exit Exam.”

Most important of all their accomplishments, says co-director Sylva Jones, “SYPP has become a resource for the community as a legitimate source for youth-led projects and ideas.”