NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-“So…” I begin, looking around the table at CALO YouthBuild students Abigail Navarro, Irvin Plata, Stephanie Olwen, and Eric Aguayo.
I am there to ask them about how the youth at this charter school — a school whose student body is comprised of at-risk students aged 16-24 who struggled at one or more traditional high schools before eventually dropping out or being kicked out — have managed to become some of the most prominent community voices clamoring to be involved in the decision-making process regarding the future of Boyle Heights.
“What was it like to go back to the schools that you felt had written you off to tell their students that they needed to be more engaged in advocating for their community?”
Irvin grins.
He had returned to the school he had dropped out of — Roosevelt High — to speak to nearly 25 classes about gentrification, affordable housing, and the development of Metro-owned lots along 1st St. and Cesar Chavez Ave.
The larger goals of the outreach he, Stephanie (who visited Mendez High), and the others conducted were to encourage students to participate in the Issues Forum the YouthBuild students will be leading this afternon and to get the students to answer the online survey* they had created exploring challenges families face in Boyle Heights.
He had been nervous at first, he says. Especially because his partner had bowed out, leaving him to do all those presentations on his own. (Read the rest here.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 24
Pub: Mar 20, 2015
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