History • Activism • Voice • Creative Expression
This summer marked the launch of our first three-day Summer Youth Social Justice Institute, an educational enrichment experience designed to deepen young people’s understanding of Black history, civic engagement, social movements, and the power of their own voices. Created especially with the experiences of Black youth in mind, the institute responds to an important educational gap: students have shared that many of these histories and perspectives are not being meaningfully explored in their Sonoma County classrooms.
Over three days, students moved from history to activism to self-expression, exploring six interconnected areas:
Civil Rights History & Youth Activism
Students examined an Overview of the Civil Rights Movement, Student Activism in the Civil Rights Movement, and the Selma to Montgomery March. Rather than learning history only through prominent adult leaders, students explored the critical role young people played in organizing, marching, protesting, challenging segregation, and advancing voting rights. The lessons reinforced a powerful message: young people have never simply been the leaders of tomorrow—they have helped lead movements for change in their own time.
Music, Art & Social Justice
Through Social Justice Songs and Groups, students explored how music has served as a tool for resistance, organizing, solidarity, healing, and hope. The curriculum demonstrated that social movements are shaped not only through legislation and protest, but also through culture and creative expression.
Finding Their Own Voice
The institute culminated in Spoken Word Poetry, creating a bridge between the history students learned and their own experiences. Students were encouraged to consider identity, justice, community, belonging, and the changes they hope to see. Spoken word and the arts provided an alternative pathway for students to process complex history and recognize self-expression as a form of agency and empowerment.
From Education to Action
Much of the curriculum was drawn from the Institute for Common Power, an educational organization dedicated to illuminating pivotal aspects of American history that have often been undervalued or overlooked, particularly the histories of marginalized communities. Its mission moves participants from “education to action” through experiential learning, with education serving as a foundation for voting justice, addressing structural racism, and strengthening an inclusive democracy.
Importantly, the Institute’s free K–12 curriculum was developed by educators who participated in its Truth and Purpose Learning Experience; branch leaders participated in this experience in March 2026. Its collection includes lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, student activism, voting rights, social justice music, spoken word poetry, Black Power, and other dimensions of Black history and civic life. The resources are intentionally designed for classrooms, homes, community centers, and other spaces where young people learn and grow.
Supporting California’s Educational Goals
The Summer Youth Social Justice Institute also complements California’s educational priorities. The state’s History–Social Science Framework emphasizes inclusive and accurate history, literacy, civic engagement, and civic responsibility. California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum further emphasizes student-centered inquiry, critical thinking, self and collective empowerment, culturally responsive education, and interdisciplinary learning—including history, social science, English language arts, and visual and performing arts.
The institute puts those principles into practice through historical inquiry, discussion, music, poetry, storytelling, civic learning, and creative expression.
Filling the Gaps. Expanding the Story.
This institute represents an intentional investment in addressing educational gaps identified by our community and reflected in the broader State of Black Opportunity work. Students themselves have expressed a desire for deeper exposure to Black history and social justice education. Our role is not to replace classroom learning, but to enrich and supplement it—particularly where Black history, voices, experiences, and contributions remain underrepresented.
This inaugural institute is only the beginning. We intend for the Summer Youth Social Justice Institute to become an annual enrichment program, continuing to expand its curriculum, partnerships, creative experiences, and opportunities for youth leadership.
Our young people deserve to understand that Black history is not simply a history of oppression—it is a history of resistance, creativity, leadership, organizing, joy, courage, and transformation.
By helping youth understand the people who made history before them—and giving them tools to express their own ideas—we are also reminding them that they have the power to shape what comes next.
