Dear Community:
I have a strong background in helping run and manage youth-led candidate forums (as well as over 20+ years in youth development). It started in 2000 when I worked for the OMI/Excelsior Beacon Center, and it was the first year for district elections in San Francisco. I partnered with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth’s John Avalos (now District 11 Supervisor) and Balboa High School’s Matt Alexander (now co-Principal of June Jordan) to bring the first and only youth-led candidate forum that year. In 2003, I worked as part of the Beacon Initiative’s team of youth workers that supported young people in successfully running and organizing a fabulous youth-led mayoral candidate forum. In both of these efforts, youth ran many, if not all, of the aspects of the forums from inviting candidates to researching and asking questions to greeting guests. Now, I want to bring something similar to the district I live in, District 6.
I have been a resident of District 6 for almost 10 out of the 12+ years I have lived in San Francisco. In that time, I have seen this district change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. It is a swiftly developing neighborhood with lots of children and youth that are often unseen because of the neighborhoods in which they live. I believe that a youth-led candidate forum can put children and youth front and center in this District 6 election, and I believe that this is crucial for the healthy development and growth for our District and San Francisco at large.
I learned a lot helping run two youth-led forums. First, I learned that while having a youth-led forum is an excellent idea it is only empowering and truly beneficial if both youth and voters turn out for the forum. Second, shared vision and accountability across multiple youth-serving organizations of and for the event is essential for success, including organizations committing to youth leading all aspects of the event from logistics to issue identification to facilitating and running the event. Third, a single coordinator who helps facilitate accountability ensures all collaborators and young people have a positive, educational, and empowering experience.
I posting this here because I need help to make this come to life. I need voters, youth workers, and youth-serving organizations to work together to make this event a huge success. I am hoping to pull together a team of youth, youth workers (the professionals who work with or for youth) and voters that want to help craft the vision and share accountability for the successful execution of this event in early May through a kick-off meeting at which organizations and people can learn more and get involved. The bulk of the work will be from June to September with the event (tentatively) at the beginning of October. The number of people that participate will dictate the scope and scale of the event.
To be clear, I am organizing this without compensation and as a voting resident of District 6 because I believe youth voice is crucial to this election. As such, I am seeking people that share this vision and value youth leadership. I currently do not work for a youth-service/development organization and to achieve this vision I need your support.
If you are interested in being a part of this historic and important event, please let me know in the comments below or at by emailing me at jason@ywcollective.org. Additionally, please let me know if you have any other comments, questions, ideas, or feedback. I am definitely interested in hearing from you.
Peace,
Jason
