Become a Changemaker.
Ever wonder why our systems never seem to change?
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How we go about pushing for change is just as important as why. Community organizing is one of the only ways to build enough power to challenge — and win — against the status quo. And we have a severe need for youth organizing in our local communities.
"We are living now inside the imagination of people who thought economic disparity and environmental destruction were acceptable costs for their power. It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future. All organizing is science fiction."
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- adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
What is CYAN?
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The CIVIC YOUTH ACTION NETWORK is a network of youth-led and youth-serving organizations, teams, and leaders committed to training and resourcing grassroots youth organizers for system-level changes that foster a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future. Joining CYAN is a commitment to collaborative learning and teaching for and by youth leaders. As a youth-founded, youth-led nonprofit, Our Time To Act has grown and evolved at the pace of our lessons learned. We have had incredible intergenerational mentors and powerful youth leaders to help us along our journey. CYAN is a means of sharing the wealth of knowledge San Diego has to offer. Together we will provide trainings, teach and practice critical skills, and support our collective work for a better future.
We need more youth activists and organizers. Most adult-led youth programs have small cohorts, focus on specific skills, or fail to address the systems that disadvantage us in the first place. At the same time, many youth-led groups, at no fault of their own, lack the resources and networks to harness the power of collective action.
We want to transform the field of youth-led organizing. We want to eradicate the disillusionment, disengagement, and disempowerment we experience as youth. For that, we need you.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
COM•MU•NI•TY OR•GAN•IZ•ING
noun
NORTH AMERICAN
the coordination of cooperative efforts and campaigning carried out by local residents to promote the interests of their community.
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"San Diego's youth engaged in community organizing to address housing insecurity and create a better future."
LEARN
CYAN members gain access to trainings and workshops that teach you how to organize, mobilize, network, give public comment,
analyze policy, fundraise, network, and so much more. The overwhelming majority of learning is youth-to-youth. We invite members of CYAN to create and facilitate their own trainings and workshops to expand the breadth of knowledge shared within our network. We promise we’ll learn just as much from you as you from us.
CREATE CHANGE
Member-led collective action campaigns open opportunities in activism and leadership for youth
to apply learned skills to better our future. Housing, transportation, social and racial justice, climate action, and inclusive governance all require systems-level change. Members will have the opportunity to share their ongoing changemaking campaigns with the network to gain support and facilitate collective action.
FIND COMMUNITY
Perhaps the most cherished part of CYAN is the close community it fosters. There’s something unparalleled about fighting for
change together, and it forges strong relationships that are fun, unique, and powerful. Members of CYAN will support one another's learning and changemaking journeys. The best lessons don't always have to be learned the hard way. Our future will be filled with joy, laughter, and shoulders to cry on.
CIVIC
YOUTH
ACTION
NETWORK
The CIVIC YOUTH ACTION NETWORK is a network of youth-led and youth-serving organizations, teams, and leaders committed to training and resourcing grassroots youth organizers for system-level changes that foster a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future..
"Youth can breach the political realm — they just need knowledge and community."
– Ken Fesler, Board Director at Our Time To Act
