Building the momentum that fuels advocacy, organizing and exploration.
At this level, youth “immerse” in practice by identifying issues important to them and their communities. They are actively building knowledge, power mapping, and connecting with local leaders.
Youth in Immersion design and form Action Groups, which are peer communities that practice transformative action through understanding and exploration. Driven by the needs they have identified in themselves and their communities, Action Groups bring together adult allies, power figures, and other community stakeholders.
Recent Examples of Action Groups
Ending Domestic Violence
This long standing Action Group is driven by youth identifying that domestic violence and the patriarchal rape culture that influences it is rooted early on in childhood, and strives to create learning opportunities for youth to uproot it. This Action Group led to the creation of our TenYoungMen program (see Collective).
Outdoor Equity
This group started because as part of our model we bring youth to explore outside. And a question that came up a lot is: ”Why doesn’t anyone look like me out here?” This group formed to work with local orgs and park systems to get more brown and black bodies outside. Over the years Outdoor Equity also leans into advocacy and leadership in how environmental injustice and racism intersect, co-creating solutions and incorporating an intergenerational lens. See Collective & Outdoor Equity to learn more.
Language Justice Cohort
Youth who identify as english language learners and felt outcasted in their schools and communities created multilingual opportunities of our Core programming. They also worked with the Coalition for a Multilingual RI and the Latino Policy Institute to advocate for inclusive policy.
Faith As Resistance
Our youth come from a diverse background of identities, including faith and spirituality. As they explored these identities in Core & Immersion, they began to notice a commonality between their experiences – the communities they belong to lacked advocacy for racial and social justice. This group formed to explore and push their communities towards this change.
Creative Expression
Recently, youth have been employing various mediums for creative expression like fashion, podcasting, cooking, art, and dance to address intersecting issues they and their communities face. For example, the “Fashion” Action Group up-cycled materials to breathe empowerment and creativity into second hand or existing clothes. Our “Ate That Plate” Action Group is using cooking to celebrate cultural diversity and address food insecurity in our city and state.