Step Up
Youth Step Up
Are you motivated and interested in social change? Are you an activist, artist, or organizer with great ideas to share? Are you down for young people and for creating meaningful change in your life and community? Then ICAH may be for you!
ICAH is a safe space for youth to:
- Develop leadership and advocacy skills
- Gain knowledge about social justice and sexual and reproductive health
- Educate the media, policy makers, and general public on issues important to you
- Make new friends and offer support to peers
- Share information, ideas, and talents
- And more!
Here is a selection of the youth trainings we offer:
- Reproductice Justice 101
- Circles of Sexuality
- Gender and Sexuality
- Youth and Human Rights
- Health and Well-Being
- Policy and Advocacy
- Lobbying Your Legislator
- Messaging: How to Make Your Voice Heard
Youth Activist Projects
Apply what you learn in our trainings by participating in a youth activist project! Create and implement a project that’s important to you. ICAH provides trainings, meeting space, transit cards, stipends, service-learning credit, and general support to achieve your goals. Current projects include:
- Illinois Youth Policy Council. The Council works statewide to develop and implement grassroots strategies to gain constituent and legislative support for responsible sexual health education. Members organize, advocate, and lobby for policy reform by creating and facilitating peer-to-peer networks, trainings, and actions. Contact Zahra for more information.
- Reproductive Justice and Access Project. Through community forums, the group aims to educate people about the reproductive justice framework and movement. The group explores the meaning of reproductive justice and its influence on various communities by analyzing the effects of parental notification for abortion and the Hyde Amendment – the restriction of federal funding for abortion – on adolescent and low-income women. Contact Maya for more information.
- School of Justice. The School is an intensive 15-week training program held on Saturdays every fall in downtown Chicago for twenty youth ages 14-20. Participants gain knowledge and skills to become advocates and revolutionary change agents in order to transform social and political realities in their communities through political workshops, leadership projects, critical thinking games, and field trips. Youth receive in-depth, interative trainings on sexuality, race and and class, reproductive justice, human rights, lobbying, new media, and much more. Contact Maya for more information.
- Young Parent Alliance. This group of pregnant and parenting youth and allies, ages 20 and younger, advocates for programs and services in Chicago Public Schools that help young parents complete their education. YPA also develops ideas to increase public awareness of the challenges young parents face in their schools and communities. ICAH provides child care stipends to YPA members who participate in meetings and events. Contact Pleasant for more information.
Organizing for Policy Change Toolkit
The Organizing for Policy Change Toolkit is a step-by-step guide for organizers to change local school board policy on sex education, including tactics, strategies and different models that have been successful in changing local school board policy in support of comprehensive sex education. Our toolkit has many different components and strategies on how organizers can involve different stakeholders in the process while making sure that youth are at the center and part of the planning. Check out the toolkit.
Our toolkit is part of The New Sex Ed: Empowered Youth Strengthening Communities, a multimedia tool from Expanding the Movement for Empowerment and Reproductive Justice on a new way of organizing for sexuality education justice that is relevant to all people and grounded in grassroots communities.
Action Out Loud! Summer Camp
A weeklong, daytime youth advocacy training camp in downtown Chicago, Action Out Loud! is designed for youth ages 14-20. You’ll receive in-depth trainings in sexual and reproductive health, young parent, and social justice issues. In addition, you’ll participate in skill-building workshops on organizing, message development, public speaking, youth-adult partnerships, power dynamics, media relations, and more. With help from experienced adults and youth leaders, you’ll use what you’ve learned to develop your own plans for action.
Youth Speak Out! E-Newsletter
The Youth Speak Out! is an online e-newsletter written by and for young people to support young social justice activists in their skill-building and leadership development. The network facilitates open communication among youth, ICAH staff, and other advocates, building a system to share information, resources, and online tools and to mobilize people for short- and long-term initiatives. Subscribe to the Youth Activist Network!
