One of the many reasons that I love living in Chicago is because of the wonderfully inspiring young people who I am privileged to work with and to know. In 2013, I was as encouraged as ever by their activism and organizing. Below are just a few of the actions and campaigns that I have followed and/or supported in some way. This is not even the tip of the iceberg in terms of youth activism and organizing that has taken place in Chicago this year. For example, many young people protested and organized against ALEC when they came to Chicago for their annual conference in August. Listen to Asha, a young organizer, discuss the group’s problematic nature here. Please feel free to offer your examples in the comments section.

1. Chicago Students Opposing School Closures, High Stakes Testing, and Budget Cuts

Young people were fully engaged in the struggle against school closings. You can find some of the posts that I wrote about their activism and organizing here, here, here, and here.

At the forefront of the student mobilization were the young people of Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS).

Despite the fact that 50 schools were closed, students are not deterred. They have joined together to launch the Chicago Student Union insisting that their voices be included & heard in any educational decision-making. Chicago student activism hasn’t ebbed as they continue to protest budget cuts, high stakes testing, the school-to-prison pipeline, and education privatization.

2. Trauma Center Campaign: Fearless Leading by the Youth and Rise Chicago

I started writing about the youth-led campaign to bring a level-1 trauma center for people ages 16 and over to the Southside of Chicago a couple of years ago. This year kicked off with a violent police assault against peaceful protesters (including several youth and adults who I know). There were arrests and eventual acquittals for some of the adult protesters. This event galvanized more people to join in the effort spearheaded by the youth of FLY three years ago to bring an adult trauma center to the Southside.

You can read an update about the campaign (which is ongoing) here. You can read some of my posts here, here, here, and here.

3. Audy Home Campaign: FLY and the Center for Change

For years now, youth organizers in Chicago have been calling for the closing of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). They now have an important ally in Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle who has called for the same thing. I have been writing about the Audy Home Campaign for years and you can read some of my posts here, here, here, and here.

4. Chicago Black Youth Project 100 – No to SB1342/No to Mandatory Minimums

A few weeks ago the Chicago BYP 100 joined the pushback against SB1342, a mandatory minimum gun bill proposed by Rahm Emanuel. They launched a petition that quickly garnered several hundred signatures opposing the bill. Members drafted a statement explaining their opposition to the bill which will criminalize more black and brown people. Representatives of the group joined in a December 2 protest against SB1342. Most recently BYP 100 organized a phone bank to reach out to various elected officials and the public about the bill.

5. No to Racial Profiling: Youth Activists from the Arab American Action Network

In August, young people from the Arab American Action Network organized a rally to, in their words, “end law enforcement violations against our communities.” They issued the following call to supporters:

Join AAAN’s youth organizers in the streets, because FBI & law enforcement entrapment of young Arab & Muslim men across Chicagoland and the country continues unjustly!

And because the investigation of the Midwest 23 also continues with no evidence of wrong-doing after almost 3 years, and because one of the victims of the FBI raids still has not had his belongings returned!

We say Enough is Enough!

We demand an end to the entrapment, harassment, surveillance, and infiltration of our communities by the FBI & its local counterparts. We demand that the U.S. Attorney General close the loopholes that allow racial profiling against Arabs and Muslims! We demand an end to the criminalization of all communities of color!

6. Mikva Challenge: Juvenile Justice Council

This group of young people came together over the summer to learn about the juvenile justice system and to create recommendations for how to address issues facing youth who leave detention and prison. The youth drafted a report which documents their ideas and recommendations. The report was presented to decision makers at the Cook County Board among others.

7. Chicago Freedom School & VOYCE – School Discipline Data Transparency

Young people from the Chicago Freedom School and Voices of Youth in Chicago Education greatly contributed to the successful effort to press the Chicago Public Schools to make information about suspensions and expulsions publicly accessible and available starting in March 2014.

8. Youth Service Project (YSP) Summer Leadership Program – Protesting against Sexual Victimization of Incarcerated Youth in Illinois

As they spent time reflecting and learning about the juvenile justice system, the school-to-prison pipeline, and youth criminalization, young people from YSP’s summer leadership program participated in a silent witness protest that I organized. This was only one of the many actions that they took. They also organized an end of summer festival focused on raising awareness about issues of criminalization in their community.

9. Young Chicago activists/organizers are at the center of the “Undocumented and Unafraid” immigrant rights movement.

The Dreamer movement has its roots in Chicago. Chicago has occupied a central place in the immigration reform struggle for several years now. Last month, some young organizers literally put their bodies on the line to successfully prevent a bus from deporting a local family.

Chicago organizer Lulu Martinez was part of the Dream 9 who took action to dramatize the violence of deportations:

“She and eight other undocumented students—a group that came to be known as the Dream 9—presented themselves to federal agents in the border town of Nogales and were tossed into a federal detention center in Arizona. She spent 15 days there, eight in solitary confinement because she handed out information about a legal helpline to other detainees.

After a national media blitz, Martinez was released and invited to apply for asylum (her next court date is early 2014).”

Below is a video of Lulu speaking about why she decided to cross the Mexican border even though she is undocumented.

For her brave actions, Lulu was named by Chicago Magazine as one of the Chicagoans of the year.

10. George Zimmerman’s not-guilty verdict for killing Trayvon Martin resonated with young people in Chicago.

In the wake of the verdict, young people across the city organized several actions including assemblies, teach-ins and protests. They also developed a Justice for Trayvon Toolkit.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are so many more campaigns and organizing efforts led by Chicago’s young people that I haven’t underscored. Some are familiar to me and many others are not. I didn’t include the various forms of cultural organizing that I know are happening, young people are addressing interpersonal and police violence, youth are leading food & environmental justice campaigns, they are also fighting for universal healthcare and economic justice. In short, the next time you hear about how violent and/or apathetic young people in Chicago are, feel free to share this post with those who are making these assertions.