January 2022
What we’ve been up to!
Over the last year, we have co-created three distinct spaces for the young people at Project VOYCE that serve as containers of care centering youth as experts in their own experiences and valued co-designers of our programming elements. These youth co-designers are actively strengthening relevant, relational, and meaningful program offerings for Project VOYCE's future.
SV2/Youth Organizing- Ten youth organizers/youth researchers have set their sights and energy towards determining what issue(s) are most impacting high school students in Denver right now. They are learning about and implementing youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) to understand better what students in Denver face in these challenging times.
Healing Justice- Eight Project VOYCE program alumni are diving deep into building relationships amongst each other and practicing culturally relevant healing modalities. They are building a collaborative space to learn about collective care, better support their own wellness, and promote the health and well-being of their peers and communities.
My VOYCE- Two youth leaders have recruited five alumni from the 2021 Summer Academy to serve as curriculum co-designers for the 2022 Summer Academy. Exploring the concepts of critical media literacy and cultural identity, they are revising the My VOYCE curriculum through the lens of Knowledge of Self collecting feedback, youth visions, and needs to guide a strengthened version of the My VOYCE offering.
Project VOYCE & The Organizing to Win Lab
Did you know that Project VOYCE was awarded funding from the Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO)? PV is now a part of The Organizing to Win Lab (OWL). We are working to increase our capacity for long-term strategy, reflect on organizational methodologies, and assess the role young people play in catalyzing multigenerational movements. From November 2021 to June of 2022, PV youth and staff are participating in strategic education in shifting from short-term to long-term thinking, creating plans to change the conditions we assess, developing the what and how of our organizing, and remaining proactive instead of reactive. We enjoy being a part of a peer learning community with 39 other youth organizing groups across the country on the frontlines mobilizing for education, climate justice, immigration reform, housing justice, and more!
Op-Ed: Who Got Next? A Clarion Call to Leadership
We’re so honored to have the efforts of our fantastic Executive Director, Vanessa Roberts, highlighted in this Op-Ed for driving community-led economic development to on-the-ground community organizing and local community visioning. Project VOYCE is proud of Vanessa Roberts for carrying forth the torch and continuing to lay community bricks to advance the prospect of a better future.
Thanks to supporters like you, we were able to close out 2021 strong and put us on track for another year of amplifying youth voices. We exceeded our general fundraising goals and surpassed our Colorado Gives Day goal by over $2,000. As we step into 2022, we are committed to supporting youth in their journey to become transformational youth leaders engaged as equitable partners in their own development and the development of their communities.
