This year marks Make the Road NY’s 25th anniversary, and my 23rd year in this work. I joined Make the Road’s Youth Power Project when I was 13 years old to improve things for young people.
We fought against youth prisons and police brutality, taught our peers to know their rights, and organized alongside our neighbors against housing practices that sought to push us out of our neighborhoods.
Our youth leaders continue to pave the way.
Will you support their organizing with a year-end gift today?
Today, our youth leaders are leading the fights to remove police from schools and to ensure that their schools have the resources that students need to thrive. As our youth leader Melissa Benitez stated at a press conference launching our 2023 New York State Policy Platform,
“New York schools have discipline policies that are racially discriminatory, ineffective, and cause harm to Black, brown LGBTQ students and students with disabilities. Every student deserves to attend a safe and high quality school where they are included, respected and supported.”