Youth Voice Movement
“Youth Getting Together To Do Something Positive For Our Future”
About Us
We are the Youth Voice Movement, a movement designed to combat the issues facing youth in the 21st century. “The Movement” is made up of youth from southeastern San Diego and beyond. We were established in 2008 with the goal of creating a positive culture to rival what was taking place in our local community.
Understanding the social landscape that exists in our community, we have taken a non-traditional approach to organizing that consists of not just advocating for long-term systematic change, but also providing tangible social change that youth can relate to. Our movement consists of two main planning groups: The Political and Community Organizing Planning Committee, and The Youth Marketing and Outreach Committee.
Where We Are Now
We are currently advocating for health and nutrition. Movement interns developed a menu of activities to host in August 2009. They formed teams to research how to demonstrate creating healthy and inexpensive meals, a fitness activity, and a movie screening/topic conversation. For the healthy meal, they made a roasted chicken salad with fruit. Staff provided the ingredients and interns were responsible for outreaching to their peers and filming the demo. Clips from the demo will be edited and posted on the Movement’s website. We have hosted weekly flag football games at Guymon Park. And our interns recruited youth to attend a screening of Super Size Me that was followed by a discussion on unhealthy eating habits and the long-term effects of eating fast food on a regular basis.
In addition, we continue to organize around quality education in our community’s high schools. Staff and youth are currently formulating working teams of high school students within all of the high schools within southeastern San Diego.
The Future
We plan to address issues that are currently affecting our community, such as: youth violence, health, STD prevention, transportation, and positive relationship building.
Interested in joining the Movement?
We can be reached at 619-527-6161. Or visit us online at www.iamthemovement.com.