About the Just Youth Circle (JYC) Tour

The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), seizing the opportunity to engage youth in governance and decision-making processes through its YES! For Equity youth component is hosting the 2024 Just Youth Circle (JYC) Tour, beginning on June 6, 2024. The tour is a series of youth-based Community Listening Sessions designed to address and improve racial equity and shared prosperity for all citizens.

The first leg of the tour will begin with three Georgia Community Listening Sessions, and are planned for the following locations:

Thursday, June 6, 2024 from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Center for Southern Equity,
667 Fairburn Road NW, Atlanta GA.

Friday, June 7, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in Albany, GA (location to be announced).

Saturday, June 8, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the
UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant Center, 715 Bay St., Brunswick, GA.

The Just Youth Circle Tour will cover 11 states in the southeast region by 2025. The tour will connect with partners that are youth-serving or youth lead organizations to build an ecosystem of youth power-building organizations to advance racial equity. At each stop, YES! for Equity Youth Organizers will be facilitating a three-hour engagement that will include a one-hour training on racial equity, and a listening session that will explore a variety of issues in youth-led grassroots work, from decision making to policy and systems changes to adult-youth collaboration.

Why have a JYC Tour?

PSE's YES! for Equity Team seeks to build relationships with youth organizers, activists, leaders and their adult allies,  all across the southeast region in 11 states.  The ultimate goal is to have a regional youth racial equity agenda that addresses the inequities Black youth and youth of color face in the American South.  We would like to build an ecosystem of youth voices that cohesively work to advance racial equity and shared prosperity for all.  Youth have been at the forefront of change in our country for decades and we want to do the slow, sustainable work of ensuring youth have what they need to grow their movements and ensure that Black and brown youth have fair and equitable outcomes.

JYC Tour Goals

• Establish or reestablish relationships with youth-led or youth-partnering organizations
• Build shared understanding around the Just Youth Circle and the overall work of PSE
• Pay youth for their time and participation
• Listen to the issues on the ground that are impacting Black and historically disinvested youth of color
• Provide a call to action to encourage organizations to commit to joining the JYC- PSE's regional approach to youth organizing
• Grow an ecosystem of youth leaders in the American South that youth can connect, network with, and learn from.

About the Just Youth Circle

Launched in 2022, the Just Youth Circle (JYC) is an ecosystem of youth and adult partnerships across the American South, consisting of youth organizers, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, government officials, philanthropic groups and community coalitions. The JYC is designed to cultivate the collective voices of youth impacted the most by unjust systems of oppression to develop an organized regional agenda for truth, freedom and liberation for all people.

Since its inception, the JYC has welcomed over 25 organizations from 5 states. PSE would like to increase that number to have youth and adult
partnerships representing 11 states in the southeast region.

About Yes! for Equity

Acquired by the Partnership for Southern Equity in 2020, YES! for Equity is a national training and movement-building force built on the belief that racial equity and intergenerational power-sharing are essential to creating community change. Founded in January 2008, as Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!), YES! developed the nationally recognized YES! Youth Power Model® for social change. YES! for Equity applies The Model to support the development of youth as civic leaders and to support adults and organizations to change harmful policies and practices that negatively impact Black youth and historically marginalized youth of color. 

YES! for Equity’s focus is to inspire and prepare youth to partner with adult allies to carry on and lead the work of equity in order to realize a new American South. A place where systems of white oppression are disrupted and dismantled, fully realizing a region where everyone has what they need to reach their full potential.