Block Club Chicago: West Side Violence Prevention Group Helping CPS Design Alternatives To Cops In Schools: ‘A Whole Different Way Of Them Doing Things’ - Mikva Challenge

Block Club Chicago: West Side Violence Prevention Group Helping CPS Design Alternatives To Cops In Schools: ‘A Whole Different Way Of Them Doing Things’

January 28, 2021

From Block Club Chicago.

By: Pascal Sabino | Thursday, January 28th, 2021

West Side Violence Prevention Group Helping CPS Design Alternatives To Cops In Schools: ‘A Whole Different Way Of Them Doing Things’

Youth civic engagement is alive, well, and thriving in the Riverside Unified School District! The final numbers from their recent showcase event were remarkable: 172 high school students presented civic engagement projects and 11 students (from high school and middle school) delivered powerful Soapbox speeches on a diverse selection of pressing issues facing this country. There were also a wide array of dignitaries interacting with the student presenters, including: Riverside Police Chief, the former Riverside Mayor, RUSD board members, representatives from the Riverside Parks, Recreation and Community Services, Professor Allison Hedge Coke, UC Riverside and Joshua Thunder Little, a Ph.D. candidate at UCR, and a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. These community leaders, along with approximately 100 other guests spent two and a half hours listening to these student experts frame their research and solutions to issues important to them. The event was a powerful reminder that our youth have an important voice that needs to be heard!

Check out this link to view the interviews or click the link in our stories: https://vimeo.com/showcase/9529790

What a powerful quote from one of our SAC students. We love creating spaces for young people to be their full and authentic selves.

#youthvoice #mikvachallenge

For today’s Monday Motivation we are amplifying the voice of Chaiya, a New York student who got on her soapbox to discuss racial inequity in medical care.

Through Soapbox Nation, young people find their voice on the issues that matter most to them and are given a national platform for sharing their ideas and actions. Soapbox Nation builds on the transformative power of Mikva's Project Soapbox curriculum and adds another dimension to the public speaking program.

Learn more and join us: www.tinyurl.com/soapboxnation22