Resources for Youth

The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) is building this webpage for youth and community organizers to access and share information about youth experiences in school and about youth-led campaigns to end pushout.

We need your help! Please send us your ideas and internet links to videos, action kits, research projects and community organizations for youth. Take a look at what we have gathered so far:

 

Films and Media

Links to films produced by and featuring students talking about the school to prison pipeline, pushout and human rights conditions in their schools.

  • Youth Camera Action Project (2007)
    The New York Civil Liberties Union working together with youth from community organizations produced three short documentaries on student experiences with the over-policing of New York City schools. Watch the videos on-line:
  • Book 'Em: Undereducated, Overincarcerated (2005)
    Youth Rights Media Project, New Haven, Connecticut
    Watch the trailer on YouTube
    This documentary unpacks the school to prison pipeline and reveals the connections between schools and the juvenile justice system in New Haven, Connecticut. After the film was released, youth launched a campaign to change suspension policies.
    Go to the Youth Rights Media Project to order the video and learn about the campaign!
  • Books Not Bars (2001)
    Witness and Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
    Watch the trailer on-line
    In this film youth and activists are interviewed about youth incarceration and human rights in the United States, including the work of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in California. Go to the Books Not Bars website at the Ella Baker Center to order the video and learn about active campaigns in California.

 

Research and Action

You can search the Resources on Pushout section of this website for research reports, articles and websites about pushout in our schools. Here are some examples of research carried out by youth themselves using interviews and surveys of other students to learn about their experiences and opinions of school policies.

Read the Press Release for the Report
Download the YRNES Report and Executive Summary
Download the Problem Tree Illustration developed by the youth researchers

  • Education Not Deportation: Impacts of New York City School Safety Policies on South Asian Immigrant Youth
    In 2004 and 2005, the YouthPower! Project of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), working with the Urban Justice Center, collected over 600 surveys and held five focus groups with South Asian immigrant youth to document the problems they experienced with school and police authorities, and to make proposals that would ensure a truly safe learning environment for all students.
    http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/Education_Not_Deportation_Report_06jun06.pdf
  • United Students Survey Results, InnerCity Struggle
    Results of a survey conducted by United Students members, an organizing project at InnerCity Struggle in East Los Angeles. The results are from surveys at Garfield, Roosevelt and Wilson High Schools in Los Angeles concerning discipline, college access & culturally relevant curriculum.
    http://innercitystruggle.org/editor/media/2004/09/56_ICS_survey%20results_2006.pdf

 

Youth Networks and Organizations

Here are some examples of youth networks and organizations in different parts of the country leading campaigns for change in their school systems. Please send us a link to your organization!

  • Education Not Incarceration
    http://www.ednotinc.org/
    Education Not Incarceration (ENI) advocates reprioritizing resources away from prison systems into comprehensive and equitable education for all people. ENI mobilizes grassroots campaigns through rallies, forums, petitions, media and lobbying; improves the social fabric supporting schools; develops and implements youth educational programs; and assists families facing punitive measures in the education system.
  • InnerCity Struggle
    http://innercitystruggle.org/
    InnerCity Struggle promotes safe, healthy and non-violent communities by organizing youth and families in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles to work toward economic and social justice.
  • Padres & Jovenes Unidos, Education Not Incarceration Campaign
    http://www.padresunidos.org/eni
    With roots in the struggle for educational justice, Padres & Jovenes Unidos has evolved into a multi-generational organization led by people of color who work for equality and justice in education, racial justice for youth, immigrant rights and the right to quality healthcare for all. Jovenes Unidos organizes youth to end the school to jail track in Denver, Colorado.
  • Southwest Youth Collaborative (SWYC)
    http://swyc.org/CommunityOrganizingInitiative
    SWYC builds power and self-determination among low-income youth and families and seeks to create a leadership and power base for disenfranchised young people and their families. SWYC is a community-based network of youth and community development organizations working together in five diverse neighborhoods on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois.
  • Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC)
    http://www.urbanyouthcollaborative.org/
    The Urban Youth Collaborative brings New York City youth together to fight for change through local and citywide organizing strategies. As a coalition, the UYC is committed to building a strong youth voice that can ensure our high schools prepare students to go to college, earn a living wage, and work for justice in society.

 

Know Your Rights

Click here for Know Your Rights materials from states around the country.  Please send us links for information from your state!

 

Get Involved with the Dignity in Schools Campaign

Tell us about your local campaign or website and share with other young people around the country.

Help us plan an upcoming conference in Chicago that will include displays of youth videos and posters.

Email us at info@dignityinschools.org