Youth Organizing and Culture Change Fund

Cultural Workers, Youth Organizers

Creative Strategies to Advance Community Power

Empowering Youth-Led Movements for Social Change

Mission Statement

Youth Organizing and Culture Change Fund (YOCCF) empowers youth leaders at the helm of social and cultural change with the tools and support to achieve personal and collective transformation to advance racial and social justice in their communities.

We recognize that the most profound positive changes in our society are rooted in the legacy of community organizing and cultural production working together towards the same goals. Therefore, we partner with community and cultural leaders, artists, funders and narrative changemakers and provide relationships and resources to advance their vision for change while building and scaling their power together.

Fund History

Established in 2022, YOCCF and our national community of youth, organizers, artists, creatives, educators, and funders have built a proven model of youth organizing that advances both social change and builds durable cultural power.

There have been many who have shared their genius and labor in the creation and execution of the Fund including Cristina Jimenez, who conducted the initial landscape analysis, and serves on the Steering Committee providing strategic guidance, and Robyne Walker Murphy, nationally-recognized arts and social justice leader and administrator who managed YOCCF through the initial infrastructure development phases. Our movement has just begun.

Our Principles

The principles that guide our work and selection criteria.

Power of Youth Organizing

Young people, with their courageous leadership, have exposed injustice, built community power, and captured the public’s imagination about the change that is possible when communities organize.

Cultural Arts Strategy

Execution of strategies based on cultural production and artistic practices afford individuals the opportunity to redefine ourselves in relation to each other, norms, and institutions, therefore redesigning values, systems, and dynamics that shape everyday life.

Youth-Led Innovation and
Intersectionality

Young people are inherently intersectional, innovative, and open to experimentation. Youth need spaces to learn about and test intersectional, creative, and diverse approaches to achieve scale and build power available to them by creatively centering approaches like culture, art, and story.

Equitably Resourced

Youth organizing has historically embedded arts and culture in the work, however, philanthropy has siloed funding and inadequately resourced cultural and arts strategies in youth organizing. We must invest equitably in young people to continue implementing and testing these strategies as they seek to win and to fund them at scale.

Read Our Latest News

News and updates from the YOCCF community.

Changing Narratives Through Cultural Strategies: Lessons from United We Dream

At a recent session hosted by YOCCF, screenwriter, producer, and strategist Sheridan (Sheri) Aguirre shared powerful insights into how United...
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Movement Partner Spotlight: El Puente’s Journey in Environmental Justice

In Brooklyn, El Puente stands as a beacon of hope and resilience for the residents of the bustling, yet polluted,...
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Cultivating Change: Our First Harvest

At YOCCF, we know that culture change is one of the most powerful tools to advance racial and social justice....
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Bringing Together Youth Organizing and Culture Change: Reflections from the Field

YOCCF held a recent gathering to reflect on the fund’s impact in bringing together youth organizers and culture creators. Several...
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Youth Power in Action: Spotlight on Shareef Dean

Over the last few weeks we highlighted members of our Youth Advisory Group (YAG), including Samir Malik of DRUM and...
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Reflecting on Progress Towards Culture Change: Takeaways from an Evaluation Session

How do you know that change is being made? Members of our Youth Advisory Group’s learning team recently went through...
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Youth Power in Action: Spotlight on Carry Pak

YOCCF is informed and inspired by the young visionaries in the movement. Over the next few weeks, we will highlight...
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Youth Power in Action: Spotlight on Samir Malik

YOCCF is informed and inspired by the young visionaries in the movement. Members of the Youth Advisory Group work to...
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Culture Change in Action: Takeaways from our Funder Learning Session

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Ten NYC Youth-Led Organizations Selected for Inaugural Youth Organizing and Culture Change Fund Cohort

YOCCF today announced its inaugural cohort of ten New York City-based youth-led and youth-serving organizations.
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BROSIS Applies Social Justice Framework to Its Youth Development Efforts

When thinking of all of the words that could be used to describe Brotherhood Sister Sol, “sanctuary” may be the...
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El Puente’s WEPA Festival NY1

Venezuelan and Puerto Rican drums, Dominican merengue, salsa and all the flavor of Latin heritage starred in the Wepa Festival...
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Contact us

info@yoccf.org