Building Beyond the Ballot Box: How Youth Are Forging Paths to Long-Term Governing Power

November 21, 4:00 pm ET

For many, election season evokes reactions ranging from hope and zeal to indifference and fear. Elections are a critical lever of democracy, but they are just one element of a broader civic context through which many youth organizing groups are contending for power to ensure their schools and communities are holistically safe spaces that provide pathways to opportunity. Join Grantmakers for Education, Communities for Just Schools Fund, and their movement partners for a vital post-election conversation with young people who are building bases of their peers to advance sophisticated political strategies grounded in the principles of multiracial democracy.

VIDEO: Program registrants may access the link to the video here, using the passcode you were emailed.

While others are welcome to attend, this event is intended for members and education grantmakers.

There is no cost to attend this Grantmakers for Education program. By registering for this program, you agree to our Learning Environment Commitment. Thank you for your patience; we review each registration in advance.

About the Speakers

Nico Bernardo (he/they)
Operations Associate
Communities for Just Schools Fund

Nico’s disposition and approach are shaped by more than a decade working in and with Providence Public Schools, including time as a volunteer, preservice teacher, classroom educator, non-profit director, school culture lead, and district-level coach. In that time, Nico specialized in affecting systems-level change with emphasis on school belonging, restorative practices, student leadership, and social-emotional well-being. Nico roots himself in the Freirean stance that education remains, as ever, a foundationally political act with the potential to empower conformity or liberation–but never both. In pursuing collective freedom, Nico draws energy from time in community among those who share, live, and lead this dream, including (especially) young people.

Nico’s formal education includes undergraduate work at Rhode Island College as well as advanced study at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There, Nico earned their EdM in Education, Policy, Organization, & Leadership with a focus on Diversity and Equity in Education. They operate from the ancestral lands of the Mashpee Wampanoag in southeastern Massachusetts where Nico resides with their spouse, orange tabby, and two children.

Amber West (she/her)
High School Organizing Manager
Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT)

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Amber earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. She has been organizing for 8 years on racial, gender, and education justice. During this program, Amber will be joined by 10th and 11th grade LIT organizers, Georgiana (She/Her) and Jackson (He/Him).

Speakers also include high school students who are movement organizers.

Additional Speakers TBA