In Their Own Words: Young People on the Value of Youth Voice in Community Health
Below are a series of responses from three young people — Yomira Zamora, Jackie Martinez, and Kawika Smith — to PACE’s recent report: “Youth Civic Engagement for Health Equity and Community Safety: How Funders Can Embrace the Power of Young People to Advance Healthier, Safer Communities for All.” To read the full report and learn more about PACE’s Health and Safety initiative, click here.
Yomira Zamora
I grew up in a barrio in southeast San Diego, where I witnessed extreme poverty, gang violence, on-going police surveillance, and more recently, an emerging process of gentrification affecting many members of my community. I also witnessed many youth — including my two older brothers — being funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline; they were pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system. At the time, I was deeply aware of the disparities between my neighborhood and the more affluent surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the ways environmental injustices negatively impacted the wellbeing of marginalized communities, but I did not have the academic language or theories to articulate the systemic barriers impacting my community.
Funding youth-led organizations or programs is not just an action for the present moment, but rather an investment for the health and public safety of our future societies.
As an undergraduate student, I devoted my studies to researching strategies to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline and build, in its place, a prison-to-school pipeline. I started working in the non-profit sector with middle-school-aged youth from working class communities of color, and for three years, I’ve mentored, educated, and learned from the youth I work with.
Based on these experiences, there is no question in my mind that youth should always be involved in every aspect of decision-making regarding policy or advocacy efforts in their communities. Youth are primary sources for issues in their own environments where they face inequities every day. Youth have valid stories to share with voices that need projecting. Funding youth-led organizations or programs is not just an action for the present moment, but rather an investment for the health and public safety of our future societies.
As a young person, I didn’t realize my story mattered. My studies in environmental and systemic injustices in communities of color have allowed me to grow professionally and personally as a young mentor and mentee. It wasn’t until I did a case study on Barrio Logan, the neighborhood where I grew up, that I realized I have to share my story so that I can help others in communities facing similar struggles.
As stated in PACE’s report, 61% of youth of color experience some form of trauma, versus 45% of the overall youth population. My own traumas stem from limited resources in my community and a lack of role models or people in positions of power that look like me. I always thought that if my brothers and my family had the means and resources like other predominantly white or wealthier communities, we would’ve had a healthier lifestyle. So after witnessing many of my friends and family funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline, I made a commitment to shift paradigms and create change within my community by going to school, learning trauma-informed care, and developing myself into that role model I needed when I was growing up. Today, I know I was able to succeed this far because of the support of other mentors, who not only believe in me and my story, but invest in my future.
When we talk about safety, we must talk about trauma, and the experiences of youth in their communities. Youth ages 15–25 are primary sources to the nuances taking place in our communities; they are born into communities that were designed by previous generations. Youth are valuable and unique resources in creating change. Furthermore, youth are usually the ones being targeted by the programs in their communities, and benefiting from state-issued aid. And yet, young people are often ignored or silenced, which makes them feel worthless and powerless, which can, in turn, lead to other unhealthy activities. Allowing them to be key members in decision-making and civic education alongside adults can intervene in unhealthy behavior or activities, and significantly impact the programs in question for the better.
To read more from Yomira, click here.
Jackie Martinez
I grew up sharing a one-bedroom apartment with my five-member family in South Los Angeles. My parents, undocumented immigrants, had recently lost their jobs. We had no light, no gas, and lived on McChicken sandwiches. Because we had moved one month into the school year, I started sixth grade late. This did not make it easier to adjust to a new school, one of many inner-city schools struggling with limited resources, safety concerns, and overcrowded classrooms. My high school was small with no traditional facilities, like a football field, gym, or auditorium, and we did not have access to AP courses or many arts/STEM-related clubs.
In 2011, my family and I faced what we would later regard as our greatest curse and blessing: foreclosure. I ended up living in garages for most of my life. My parents had to work tirelessly to find jobs during that financially and emotionally unstable time. At age eleven, I began working with my parents from 1 a.m. to 10 a.m., cleaning movie theaters to help alleviate their work burden. And I have worked every weekend and vacation since.
The future is being rewritten by a generation of young innovators with the power to see what others don’t. Think about what could happen once we equip these young innovators with the right tools.
These experiences made me a stronger person. Whenever I face adversarial moments, I think about this period in my life — the uncertainty, the hunger we endured, but also the perseverance and hope. The most profound and impactful education I have received has not been in the classroom, but pushing myself through countless nights of heavy eyes, unsafe midnight coffee runs, and backaches. It has been these scarring events that have become battle stripes that I now proudly wear as I take on my next challenge.
I have committed myself to foster change to alter the conditions not just for my family, but those around me by doing the best I can with the resources at hand, as limited as they may be.
During my high school years, I created a partnership program called “Soaring Warriors,” where my peers can assist teachers, tutor, and mentor middle school students to help foster community and empowerment. Following its success, I started “Get Financially Lit,” a program where I taught middle schoolers an eight-week curriculum on building financial literacy to help prepare low-income students of color for college and life. And in my senior year of high school, I served as the lead organizer for South L.A.’s first youth TEDx talk to expose my community to concepts considered “taboo” or simply unspoken, including mental illness, digital currency, environmental justice, and diversity, all of which affect our community in different ways.
Through these programs and activities, my ultimate purpose was to dismantle stigma by fostering learning, inspiration, and curiosity, and igniting conversations that matter and, in this way, bringing community together. And I am not alone. There are so many more young people out there who are eager to foster change in their communities but are hindered by the knowledge gap, opportunity gap, or simply put, lack of support.
The future is being rewritten by a generation of young innovators with the power to see what others don’t. Think about what could happen once we equip these young innovators with the right tools.
To read more from Jackie, click here.
Kawika Smith
It is no secret that today’s youth will be the leaders of tomorrow. However, they rarely are invited to have a seat at the table. Youths voices are not often deliberately included or heard when important decisions are made — but young people have long played an intricate part in change making. The many youth-led protests of the Civil Rights Movement are examples of this. A more recent example is how the Parkland students changed the gun debate. The future becomes more promising when those who will inherit the power are a part of the decisions made today.
I grew up in a community where “a child is to be seen and not heard.” My response was always, “What if the house is on fire?” I didn’t like that I lived in a society that didn’t embrace my voice because I was “too young” or “inexperienced.” Many believe that youth are too incompetent or that youth aren’t constituents, but they are wrong.
The future becomes more promising when those who will inherit the power are a part of the decisions made today.
Youth in south central Los Angeles recently challenged the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) by demanding that it allocate funding to schools based on need. Youth, working with community organizations, organized and strategized on potential formulas for how funding would be allocated. After meetings and rallies, those involved were able to get a unanimous vote that the Student Equity Need Index would allocate more funding to higher need school in an effort to build a more equitable educational environment. This victory means schools primarily in the inner city will have more up-to-date classroom materials, and more wrap-around services to cater to students’ mental health and educational needs. Youth were instrumental in this victory because they provided the stories needed to demonstrate the real inequity in schools.
After working with organizations like Children’s Defense Fund-California and Community Coalition, I felt compelled to serve my community and be a voice on behalf of youth. Through helping conduct a voter registration drive, participating in LAUSD meetings and conversations with board members, participating in a gubernatorial forum and attending a movement building retreat, I have learned how to advocate for those who are marginalized in our society, and I have learned the importance of being engaged civically as well as the importance of cross-cultural and cross-generational collaboration. I also joined my neighborhood council after seeing that my council was represented by only adults. My seat as the Youth Representative is not limited to representing only the youth in my community; I represent the community as a whole.
None of these activities would have been possible without the support of these organizations and their staff who saw the value in me and other young people, and recognize that our voices are important. We need more organizations like these but I know that they often struggle with supporting youth because of a lack of funding. If we want our youth of today to be strong leaders for our future, we have to invest in them.
To read more from Kamika, click here.
