April marks the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—a powerful force that, in the face of Jim Crow segregation and white supremacist terror, organized toward a more just and equitable future.
From sit-ins to Freedom Rides and voter registration campaigns in the South, SNCC laid a blueprint for future generations of activists to follow. Today, we honor SNCC by uplifting the youth organizers of our time who are carrying this legacy forward in the face of renewed and heightened attacks. Amid escalating voter suppression, attacks on trans and queer youth, bans on Black and queer histories, and the rollback of civil rights, our grantee partners are on the frontline, building a future where freedom belongs to all of us.
Join us in celebrating just a glimpse of the visionary work Borealis’ grantee partners are leading today.
The Movement in Action
From shutting down detention centers to advancing protection for migrants and police accountability, the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance places directly impacted youth in policy spaces to collectively shift power and transform systems.
Carolina Youth Action Project’s Youth Leader Institute builds skills for girls, trans youth, and gender nonconforming youth ages 14-18 to support, critically analyze, and lead a movement for radical and lasting change in South Carolina through two campaigns: Safer Schools Without School Resource Officers & Sex Education Beyond Abstinence.
Providence Youth Student Movement’s Counselors Not Cops campaign aims to create safe and healthy schools through positive safety and conduct strategies, not punishment, by demanding the removal of all School Resource Officers from Providence public schools and the hiring of health and safety staff focused on alternative approaches to conflict resolution.
In Washington, Stonewall Youth is building the leadership of queer and trans BIPOC youth through peer-led programs rooted in creative expression, community care, and advocacy. Their work spans art and writing workshops, sober social events, a gender-affirming clothing closet, and leadership training that equips young people to organize and thrive.
Youth Empowerment Performance Project supports queer and trans youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago through arts-based healing, leadership development, and mutual aid. Their programs include a nine-month Healing Performance Program, community arts workshops, and leadership training—supporting youth to tell their stories, build advocacy skills, and access critical resources for stability and growth.
The official student newspaper of HBCU North Carolina Central University, a historically-black college/university, The Campus Echo is one of the most highly recognized and awarded Black student newspapers in the country, reporting on housing, mental health and family planning resources, and opportunities for political education.
The Change They’re Creating
Diverse Ability Incorporated’s Arizona Youth Leadership Forum and Youth Engagement Academy trains disabled youth to lead policy advocacy, peer mentoring, and systems change efforts across the state. Their programs have expanded person-centered planning in schools, increased youth representation on statewide disability councils, and built leadership pipelines for disabled youth in rural and tribal communities.
For over two decades, Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) has trained Southeast Asian youth to organize around racial, gender, and economic justice, winning expanded access to school-based health centers and shifting local policies to center migrant and refugee communities. Their biggest win came when they secured $1 million in Long Beach city funding through their Invest in Youth campaign, redirecting resources from policing to youth development and wellness.
Founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Rethink New Orleans empowers Black youth to lead systemic change in their schools and communities. Their youth organizers have successfully advocated for healthier school meals, the repair of over 350 school bathrooms, and the implementation of restorative justice practices in New Orleans.
Southern Movement Committee builds Black youth power in Nashville through organizing, advocacy, and participatory democracy. Their Youth Assembly Training Cohort has trained over 100 young leaders, and their campaigns have redirected $10 million in city funding toward youth programs and violence prevention, challenging the school-to-prison pipeline and advocating for police-free schools.
Students Deserve, which works to make Black Lives Matter in school, achieved a landmark victory by defunding an additional $3.7 million annually from the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD), funds that will be used to expand community-based safety initiatives—including safe passage, conflict intervention, de-escalation, and more. This victory comes less than four years after a historic victory in defunding LASPD by $25 million annually.
Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project’s Healing Futures is Philadelphia’s first ever pre-charge, youth-focused restorative justice diversion program. Instead of relying solely on a punitive response to harm, Healing Futures facilitates an exploration of accountability, healing, and transformation. Each case is diverted from the courts to a restorative process prior to any charge being filed. Once the responsible youth completes the program, the charges against them are declined.
Funding Future Generations
Today’s youth leaders are modeling what transformative, cross-movement organizing looks like—leading efforts that span racial justice, trans and queer liberation, disability justice, education, and more—connecting struggles that have long been siloed, and building power rooted in care, strategy, and collective vision.
And they’re not doing it alone. Across generations, grassroots leaders are organizing at the intersections—holding communities through crisis, mobilizing grassroots power, and building a future where we thrive and access unbridled joy. At Borealis Philanthropy, we’re proud to resource organizers leading this life-saving work and invite our philanthropic peers to meet this moment with the same conviction: through long-term, flexible funding that sustains this work and honors the leadership of those closest to the harm—and the solutions.
To better understand how Borealis can support you in forging connections with—and funneling resources to—the frontlines of the social justice movements, please connect with us.