I started Bay Area Youth For Justice because I wanted to create a space for teenagers to talk. Talk about what they care about, what worries them, what they celebrate, what issues really hit home. Because we can’t change the world if we don’t talk about what needs to be changed. Conversation is the first step towards making real progress--in order to move forward, we need to be united and understand each other’ s needs and views. And in order to be united and understand each other, we need to listen and talk to each other. We need to be heard and make other people feel heard. That’s when we can move forward as a society. Bay Area Youth For Justice is a place where teenagers and youth can be heard and feel like their views matter. It’s about listening, learning, talking, and growing together to create a more accepting and open-minded society.
- Antara Chugh
The death of George Floyd was a tipping point for millions of people around the world. The world was tired of seeing injustice on top of injustice against black lives. In spite of COVID-19 thousands of people marched peacefully to get justice and spread awareness for all the black lives lost to police brutality. Social media was blowing up with people reposting instances of injustice to bring awareness and many different petitions were created to put pressure on the federal and national government. As a teengager myself, I was constantly on social media looking into the posts that many people reposted. I soon realized that a lot of the information we were getting was either false or only showed one side of the story. In order to bring justice to these situations we have to look at both sides and we have to dig deep and gather all the evidence we can. As I saw all of this unravelling around me, I realized that I wanted to do something more and I wanted to unite the youth in the Bay Area for something bigger. This is why I created Bay Area Youth For Justice. To give the youth a platform to speak out against the injustices they see in our world today whether it be through artwork, research papers, or group discussions. We are currently planning many zoom panels in which activists for specific movements can speak to our members about how to help this movement while also educating us about the movement. Bay Area Youth For Justice is a student led nonprofit committed to creating a safe environment for people to get educated and educate others.
- Anika Chandwani
