Momentum Alliance

Young gifted and black (ygb) Momentum Alliance has created a closed space for black youth to engage in critical reading and theory through a shared reading of assata shakur's autobiography. Over the course of 8-months, ygb supported 12 participants with reading materials, socratic reflection sessions, and leadership awards in the form of stipends.

Recreational activities recreational activities are free opportunities for unique engagements offered by ma. Our recreational activities happen several times a year and are open to our general audience, not just cohort members. We partnered with the snowdays foundation to take youth to mt. Hood for a snowboarding or skateboarding trip, twice during the year. Momentum Alliance also hosted friday fun nights, a safe, family-friendly space for youth in the community to engage in different athletic activities, share food, and build friendships. Friday fun nights were created out of a need for a third space for portland area youth who wanted a safe way to engage with each other. Friday fun nights were completely led by Momentum Alliance youth interns, providing a direct connection to the community being served.

Youth equity collaborative youth equity collaborative (yec) -Momentum Alliance convenes a collaborative or 6 youth organizing programs including: ma (lead), opal youth environmental justice Alliance, multnomah youth commission, capaces turno, latinos unidos siempre, and Oregon student association. The collaborative provides leadership opportunities for youth in Oregon to build a statewide youth-led intersectional social justice movement. Yec addresses the need for more multi-identity and multi-issue youth of color organizing across the state. This year yec organizations attend the oscc conference.

Financial aid / assistance to youth in need Momentum Alliance offers direct financial assistance to youth participants who express an urgent need. In order to be eligible to apply for financial assistance, participants must have been involved with Momentum Alliance programming at some point during the calendar year and provide sufficient documentation regarding their financial needs. Requests that have been fulfilled include rental assistance, utility bill assistance, and driver's license fees. Sponsorships & partnerships students united for palestinian equal rights -Momentum Alliance sponsored 3 student leaders and organizers from portland state university. -sponsorship entailed financially supporting students to attend the national students for justice in palestine conference. How did the conference benefit organizers and support them in gaining leadership skills? "this conference helped us gain leadership skills by teaching us how to build a movement culture on campus to achieve a vision. We attended the following workshops, plenary, and keynote that developed our leadership skills: 1) cultivating a sustainable struggle: movement culture as the foundation of our organizing by palestinian youth movement 2) plenary: the state of the student movement by dr. loubna qutami, taher herzallah, and monadel herzallah 3) keynote: students as partners in struggle by mohammed el kurd. Being able to learn from experienced organizers and alumni about the student movement we inherit from them was an inspiring moment. What we appreciated about this knowledge is that we were already familiar with goal-setting, but what it takes to reach these goals in an anti- capitalistic, grassroots, collective fashion has been information we have had to figure out for ourselves. This was finally a space that understood the unique needs of a palestine solidarity club on campus and how to balance being a political organization and a student club simultaneously." Impact of ma's sponsorship: "ma's funding helped us easily travel to and from the conference from where we were staying and attain nutritious meals during the days. Inflation had taken its toll on the cost of food and gas in los angeles. If we had to cover these costs out of pocket or invest more energy into fundraising, then it would have taken away our time from programming for club members and being able to prepare for the conference by setting our personal and organizational intentions. Ma's funding gave us the freedom to focus more on extracting the best of the conference to benefit super." Professional development -leadership development of all staff, youth, board -as a youth-led social justice nonprofit whose mission is to inspire future social justice leaders by providing leadership opportunities, we are often providing leadership opportunities within the organization for our youth interns, staff and board. We are constantly learning.