LVEJO Youth Campaign

LVEJO Youth Campaign:

Featuring these Youth Events and Topics covering 2006-2008:

CineYouth Green Screen and DIY
1st Annual Little Village Youth Summit on Gang Wars
Different Writing Styles: through the Media Justice Grant from the Crossroads Foundation
Midwest Social Teach-In
Pictures from convening in Bay Area - April 24-27
Pictures from media training during week of 3/17-3/21
Interesting Blurbs
Youth-ful Spring Time Events
Youth Fundraiser at Black Hole
LVEJO Youth brainstorming for El Cilantro
Youth & The Military
Know Your Rights Workshop
Preparation of Celotex Mass and Actual Event
Midwest Social Forum
Chicano History Class
Earth Day Event
Past Events from Spring Break 2006
Environmental Justice Overview and Community Mapping
Service Learning Fair at Curie H.S.
LVEJO Youth Outing
Mobilized Community Members

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Come visit our Little Village Youth at El Cilantro

Comments regarding LVEJO
Available Scholarships

Environmental Research Foundation / Rachel's News Archive now housed with LVEJO (En Español)

CineYouth Green Screen and DIY

Midwest Social Teach-In

These pictures are from the Midwest Social Teach-In that we attended in late March. Four YAOTL members attended; Juan Ramos, Raul Villalpando, Caira, and Marcos Acosta. Juan Ramos facilitated an impromptu workshop on the prison industrial complex with a young man from Milwaukee's Urban Underground youth org. The LVEJO youth were all active participants at the event from MCing the youth event to participating in an intergenerational fish bowl discussion.

Different Writing Styles: through the Media Justice Grant from
the Crossroads Foundation

These pics are of a training about different writing styles.  As part of the  training series funded through the Media Justice Grant from
the Crossroads Foundation, the youth were able to hear from college students on the imporantce of strong writing skills.  The training was
formatted as a collective intelligence excercise that used their previous knowledge learned in school as a platform to link writing as 
a social and environmental justice tool.  This training took place April 11, 2008

Pictures from convening in Bay Area - April 24-27

Number 24 has Brenda Becerra faciliating.
Number 89 is a Toxic Tour we attended hosted by YUCA-youth united for community action from East Palo Alto,California

Pictures from Media Training during week of 3/17-3/21

1st Annual Little Village Youth Summit on Gang Wars

These pictures are from the Prison Industrial Complex Worshop three YAOTL members facilitated on March 22, 2008.  Brenda Becerra, Juan 
Ramos and Maria Sosa prepared the workshop for the first annual Little Village Youth Summit on Gang Wars.  The summit was organized by
community agenicies in hopes of addressing the youth on youth violence that palgues our community.

Youth-ful Spring Time Events

Media training during the week of spring break.YAOTL took a week long media training facilitated by Marisol Becerra (LVEJO board co-chair and co-founder of El Cilantro-the youth newsletter) and Mindy Faber (Open Youth Networks). The youth learned how toconduct interviews with community members, document their stories to address and highlight environmental justice issues and how to edit videos. Mindy Faber facilitated workshops on how to embed video taken during the CATT (Community Asset Toxic Tour) onto agoogle map; creating a digital environmental justice map of Little Village. They started a blog to showcase their articles and poems from El Cilantro digitally and their videos. The blog will serve as a digital platform for young people to express their concerns and organize across issues affecting young people locally, regionally, nationally and even globally.

Two YAOTL members attended the second annual FCYO convening in the Bay Area in late April. Eleven national environmental justice organizations with strong youth leadership bodies were granted funds and brought together to share strategies and best practices and to build a platform for a youth led environmental justice movement. Brenda and Juan facilitated a hands on activity to illustrate the concept of environmental justice. They shared their environmental justice map as a tool to strengthen the movement.

Interesting Blurbs

"La lucha por justicia corre por mis venas, corazon acelerrado con el ritmo de mi gentes"

"We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends"- Mary McLeod Bethune

"We must strive to become good ancestors"

LVEJO Youth Fundraiser at Black Hole

Click on picture for full sized view

LVEJO's Youth Group hosted a Break dancing Competition in June of 2007 to raise money to attend the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta. The event was hosted at the Black Hole on 26th Street and was a great success with break dancers of all ages and skill level. 1st place won a $100 and youth came out from all over the city. Local D.J. and hip hop groups also performed to keep the party live.

LVEJO Youth brainstorming for El Cilantro
. . . .

LVEJO sponsored Know Your Rights Workshop

	LVEJO sponsored Know Your Rights Workshop, July 24^th in order to empower Youth and community members. Many of them have been victims of police harassment and the immigration ‘roundups’ or know someone who has. They learned tactics and information that may help them if they are faced in similar situation like this in the future. Click any image for a larger version

Preparation of Celotex Mass and Actual Event

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Midwest Social Forum
Was held July 6^th to the 8^th

LVEJO youth were awarded a scholarship to attend the Midwest Social Forum Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM). The Midwest Social Forum Conference (MSF) is an annual gathering of community activists, educators, students, and others committed to sharing experiences and information, strengthening alliances and networks, and developing effective strategies for progressive social, economic, and political change.

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Chicano History Class
Was held June 28^th 2006

What is history?
Do you know YOUR history?
In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you come from!
Come learn about OUR STRUGGLES!
Learn about the Chicano Movement and its History

	To kick off our session we will watch the WALK OUT documentary and host a discussion afterwards

To kick off our session we will watch the WALK OUT documentary and host a discussion afterwards

When: Wed, June 28th @ 1pm
Where: Bishop Manz Hall,
St. Agnes of Bohemia
2651 S. Central Park Ave.
Who: Everyone is Invited!

Earth Day Event
...was held April 22^nd 2006

	LVEJO Celebrates Earth Day by creating more green space in our community! On April 22^nd LVEJO youth helped design and build a community garden on 30^th and Millard

. . .

Youth & The Military
Know Your Rights Workshop
Preparation of Celotex Mass and Actual Event
Midwest Social Forum
Chicano History Class
Earth Day Event
Past Events from Spring Break 2006
Environmental Justice Overview and Community Mapping
Service Learning Fair at Curie H.S.
LVEJO Youth Outing
Mobilized Community Members

Past Events from Spring Break 2006

Saturday, April 8^th @ 9am Follow-Up Immigration Reform

In conjunction with the broader LVEJO workshop regarding immigration, the youth will present pictures and coverage on the Immigration March, as well as, talk about the DREAM ACT and their experiences with it.

In addition to the resources made available at LVEJO, the youth will also talk about what they can do to continue the fight.

Past Events from Spring Break .

Environmental Justice Overview and Community Mapping
(Was completed Monday, April 10th @ 12am)

The Youth were introduced to concepts of equity and justice as it pertains to Environmnental Racism. Agenda consisted of reactions to text and images, highlighted instances of injustice in various communities. A discussion followed summarizing youth’s reactions and talking about what they percieved to be injustices in the Little Village community.

Following that they were asked to develop their own definition of what EJ means. Comparisons to other definitions followed. Efforts like Community Mapping were introduced as a way to combat injustices. Community Mapping was held Vigil was at Congressman Lipinski’s Office

The program ran:

Tuesday, April 11th
Community Assests and Toxic Tour Training
Kimberely Wasserman will train Youth on CATT tying in their experiences from the previous day.

Wednesday, April 12th
Community Assests and Toxic Tour Training
Youth assisted Kim on an actual tour. Afterwards, we collected signatures for our petitions and passed out El Cilantro to target areas.

Thursday, April 13th
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
S.M.A.R.T. Goals -This workshop was designed to teach the concepts of setting goals as they relate to leadership and the specific YUDDJ campaigns. A strategic plan was laid out to get youth’s schools to publicy support the DREAM ACT and expand counter-recruitment efforts and contact congressional representatives and gain a sit-down meeting . Social Event: Softball Game

Service Learning Fair at Curie H.S.
Service Learning Fair at Curie H.S.
Was held March 13^th 2006

LVEJO provides several service learning requirement fufillment options for students among a variety of other volunteer opportunities that anyone can get involved with. LVEJO outreaches to nearby High Schools to attract students to get involved with their community. LVEJO Youth and Staff eagerly talk to students and teachers of ways to get involved with the Little Village Community at Cure H.S.

. .

LVEJO Youth Outing
Was held Jan. 27^th 2006

As an effort to celebrate the hard work YUDDJ members have thus far accomplished in the past year, including successfully completing their Final Exams. LVEJO went bowling with the Youth! Our fun bowling extravaganza took place Jan. 27^th 2006. Woo Hoo!!

Mobilized Community Members

	LVEJO mobilized community members to stand in solidarity with one of the many Pro Immigrant Rights demonstrations that took place in the city of Chicago. LVEJO packed two school buses full of youth, adults and families for a total of about 280 people to march in solidarity for immigrant rights.

Youth & The Military

Limit the Military Presence in our Schools!

Letter: Not in Our Nombre

By Celina R. De Leon, WireTap
Posted on March 20, 2006, Printed on March 20, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/33778/

Yeah, I'm from Mexico, too. That's where I'm from, and look at me now. You can do this, too. -- Oskar Castro

The increased recruitment of young Latinos and Latinas to the armed forces is nothing new. The campaign has been around since President Clinton was in office, when the disproportionately low number of Latinos in the military came to light. But what's new is the rising numbers of Latino counter-recruitment activists across the country.

"Anti-military activists have been having this conversation for the past 10 years and we've never seen this type of activity that we're seeing now," said Oskar Castro, counter-recruitment activist with the American Friends Service Committee of Philadelphia, Pa. "I think it's because [Latino/as are] paying attention more than they ever had. They need to. It's a war, and it's an endless war. It's not just the war in Iraq. It's the so-called war on terror."

Latino counter-recruitment activists have been emerging on both coasts, and in pockets across the country. In big cities like San Diego and Chicago, and in small cities like Hartford, Conn., where Latinos Contra La Guerra (Latinos Against the War) led by Milly Guzman-Young are mobilizing large numbers of youth.

"Latino activists who haven't necessarily always been involved in this conversation, or as involved as in anti-colonialism, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and social justice work, have found [counter-recruitment activism] as compelling and important to their work," says Castro.

Oskar Castro recently became involved in the counter-recruitment movement because of his uncle, who passed away last year. He was a Vietnam veteran enlisted in the Marine Corps.

"When I started there was an impending war, but now we're in that war. And I see a lot of young men and women who are coming back and who are going to be just as challenged, if not more so, than my uncle," said Castro.

"I watched him slowly deteriorate for 37 years, due in large part to his experiences in Vietnam and his association with the military, and all the bad things that happened to him afterwards -- health related and benefits related. The benefits administration wasn't there for him, nor was the military," said Castro. "If I could prevent any one person from not becoming my uncle, then I would have done some good work. And so I continue always with him in mind."

Pulling up in their bright Humvees at playgrounds, car shows, basketball tournaments, Latina sorority parties, and appearing in video games such as "America's Army," and bulletin boards and magazines in Latino communities, the military is determined to wow and win the hearts and minds of Latino youth.

"At these basketball courts, they pull up in their Humvees with the recruitment information translated into Spanish. And a lot of young people of all ages approach the Humvees," said Tomas Alejo, a counter-recruitment activist, and one of the founding members of the Watsonville, Calif., Brown Berets. "They come looking very attractive in their best uniforms. It captures the young people's attention. They see the glitter and the machismo."

The Watsonville Brown Berets was founded in 1994, in reaction to the social issues the Chicanos and Central Americans in the area were facing -- poor school conditions, police harassment, lack of political representation in the City Council and school boards, student harassment, and the large high school dropout rate. The founding chapter of the Brown Berets was formed in 1967 in East Los Angeles for the same reasons -- and the Vietnam War.

Watsonville is a rural, migrant, farming community where just about 80 percent of the residents are Mexican and recent immigrants of Central America. It's a working class community with very impoverished areas, and not a lot of resources. Watsonville is also home to many of the United Farm Workers struggles led by Cesar and Helen Chavez, and the Canary Strikes, led by migrant farm workers, including Alejo's parents.

"We became interested in counter-recruitment activism in the last Iraqi war. We noticed a lot of the recruits out of the Santa Cruz County were from Watsonville," said Alejo. "Recruiters were heavily targeting our schools on a daily basis. They were also at our playgrounds, basketball courts. They had a whole agenda set up for them to be our friend, our mentor."

Alejo, with the Watsonville Brown Berets, and social activism groups from Santa Cruz, held protests and were successful in getting military recruiters out of their schools and their local university.

"They had a large assortment of recruiters from the Navy to the National Guard to the Army," said Alejo. "We were able to pass a resolution in our school board that qualified 'Opt Out' on our emergency cards in our schools. Now parents have the option to opt out the military from having this information."

Showing up in high schools in the forms of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) and pro-citizenship programs, military recruiters use often unattainable promises to attract youth -- citizenship, money for college, and career training.

"Certainly, in the last few years, one of the promises that we hear in the Latino community is that a recruiter will tell someone, 'I can help you get citizenship,' said Jorge Mariscal, a counter-recruitment activist with the San Diego, Calif. organization Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (YANO), and a Vietnam veteran. "Now, the reality of that is they cannot help you get citizenship -- they can help you apply for it sooner if you enlist. But you're not guaranteed citizenship… We've met Latino kids who actually went to fight in Iraq and who came back and their citizenship was denied for whatever minor legal infraction they might have had when they were a kid."

Young people have to be legal residents to enlist into the Armed Forces, and technically, they have to show a high school diploma. But since the outstretched U.S. army is struggling to meet its recruitment targets, the Armed Forces has had to take more people without a high school diploma. The Dream Act gives young people who are not documented two options for conditional residency - they have to attend college, or go to the military. Since Latino youth tend to come from low-income families, college is rarely seen as a feasible option.

"The biggest lie recruiters tell in general is the amount of money you'll get for college," said Mariscal. "They're very misleading because very few people get that much money. And there's all this fine print of what you have to do to get that much money. So, if you're in a Latino community, where your parents don't even understand English, it's very easy for recruiters to manipulate all this information."

"And then the third most misleading promise is that they're going to get you a job in the military," said Mariscal. "They only have limited ability to give you the job you want because once you're in, you're given a series of tests. And if you don't test high enough, you might not get some of the jobs you thought you were going to get. So, a lot of Latino kids say they want to go and work on computers and high tech stuff. But then when they take their exams and score low because they come from bad high schools, they're not qualified for those high tech jobs. … And they'll be put in the infantry and be a truck driver."

With an average 12-hour workday in the military, taking classes toward a college degree is nearly impossible. According to Mariscal, studies show that it takes people who enlisted in the military an average of 10 years to earn a B.A.

"They play with the young people's brains, and with their attitudes," said Fernando Suarez del Solar, founder of Proyecto Guerrero Azteca in Escondido, Calif, and a counter-recruitment activist. "Some recruiters say they can give you the opportunity to serve your new country, Or, 'You're Hispanic, your parents don't have good money, your mother cleans bathrooms, your father works in the farms, you come here -- you'll have opportunities for integrity. Community people will respect you.' … A lot of young people go into the military with their eyes closed," Suarez del Solar noted.

Suarez del Solar visits close to 140 schools across the country a year, educating youth about the decision to join the Armed Forces. He started Proyecto Guerrero Azteca after his son, Jesús, was killed after stepping on a U.S. cluster bomb while fighting in Iraq on March 27, 2003.

"Many recruiters often say, 'Don't you want to defend your country?' -- playing on the whole war on terror thing, when trying to recruit youth," said Mariscal. "For immigrant kids, they often draw on this, 'Don't you want to show your gratitude to your new country?' 'Don't you want to get out of your parents' house?' 'You'll have freedom to travel.'"

"Students in community colleges are often told by recruiters, 'Look, you're not going anywhere here,' where I can give you this, this, and that. So, some of them openly discourage going to college. They talk very openly in their literature about how college is their number one competitor," Mariscal added.

As for the difference in tactics used between the sexes, young men can assume to hear that military training and experience will make them more of a man. And young women can expect to hear that they will not just be a girl anymore, they will actually be in charge of men.

And if military recruiters still cannot get the youth to sign up? They get their parents to.

"[The military] recognizes the sociological perspective that Latino families overwhelmingly -- in immigrant communities and nonimmigrant communities -- still keep their children very close to the chest. And as a result, the young person does not have the kind of consciousness or freedom that other members of ethnic minority groups have with regards to being accountable to themselves, and to themselves only," said Castro. "There is a stronger sense of family in Latino communities and the military recognizes this. And so a lot of the marketing and advertising that's been done has been done with the parents of Latinos in mind. The idea that if they can convince parents that this is okay for their child, they will have their blessing."

In addition, many young people and parents in immigrant communities feel the pressure to convince themselves, and the rest of the nation, that they, too, are a part of this country, and that they, too, can serve.

"I would think it would be the same kind of sentiment that the folks in the African American community might or must have had when the military was segregated," said Castro. "They wanted to show that they, too, could fight for their country … Latinos and Latinas are in that next wave of having to prove that they belong here, and that they're on par with other communities. One way to do that is to join the service."

Yet, rather than pushing peace at all costs, many Latino counter-recruitment activists see the movement as being more about educating young people to make informed choices about their futures.

"The first thing we say is we're not against the military," said Mariscal. "The second thing we say is we're not here to tell you what to do. But what we do tell them, as military veterans, is that this is our experience and because we have the latest recruitment documents -- here are the promises made to you, and what promises are not going to be kept. Now that you have both sides, go with your family and make the decision."

Celina R. De Leon is a contributing writer of WireTap based in Brooklyn, New York.

© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/33778/

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