Californians For Justice Education Fund

Community Schools Summit (work with STAC)In June 2023, CFJ formed part of the planning and host committee of the first ever Community Schools Summit held in California. Through our Capacity Building Team, CFJ forms part of the State Transformational Assistance Center (STAC) which is meant to accelerate efforts across the state to reimagine community schools in ways that are aligned with the California Community Schools Partnership Program Framework (CCSPP). Over 1000 CA education leaders attended the single day event from all different regions and districts. Our Capacity Building Team made sure to center youth voices by creating a Youth Advocacy Board with students from across all of our regions that participated in planning. Additionally, we had some staff and youth organizers who created and facilitated workshops during the day. The highlight of the event was our Youth and Parent Panel which closed out the event with six of our youth leaders and two parents from the community.

Base Building and Leadership Development Our Working To Amplify Youth Voices (WAVY) Program was the first program of the 2023/2024 academic year (December 2023) with over 59 students joining in total for Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, and Long Beach. Of those that attended, 33% stated that they joined because an active CFJ intern or organizer invited them, giving a real time perspective of the impact of our youth leadership. As this is the first event/retreat for the school year, it is an indicator of what the school year will look like. Of all statewide participants, over 93% claimed that the likelihood of them continuing to be involved in CFJs programming was Very High.

Fall Base Building DriveIn September we launched our Fall Base Building Drive across our four regions (San Jose, Oakland, Fresno, Long Beach), a special occurrence for 2023 since we have not had the opportunity to do this in-person since 2020. Lasting until October, our youth leaders and organizing teams reached over 1k youth across the state! Our students led:48 Classroom Presentations: key building tactics that leverage our Power of Relationships Strategy by partnering with adult allies (educators and administrators) at our school chapter sites.16 Tabling Events: events that leverage our Power of Moral Authority by having members share their personal stories to recruit new members