Saturday, June 13th, 2026
Location: Brotherhood Sistersol, 512 West 143rd Street New York, NY 10031
Time: 10am – 4pm
To equip young organizers with the critical skills needed to navigate increasingly hostile terrain while building organizing and narrative power.
This one-day citywide convening will bring together 80 youth organizers, artists, and youth workers for intensive training, community building, and strategic alignment across New York this June. This convening will strengthen New York’s youth organizing ecosystem by equipping young leaders with critical skills, fostering cross-organizational relationships, and building authentic partnerships between artists and organizers—creating a more resilient, connected movement for the long term.
Skills Development:
Provide comprehensive training in know-your-rights protocols, community care strategies, and narrative change methodologies
Community Building:
Foster cross-organizational relationships and trust networks that strengthen movement resilience
Arts Integration:
Center artists as co-strategists in organizing campaigns, integrating cultural work into transformative organizing and narrative shift
Program Tracks
The content of workshops and trainings are to be sourced by youth organizers and youth leaders within YOCCF’s movement partner network and beyond.
Youth Organizer Track
Youth-specific know-your-rights training, rapid response network building, and school-based organizing strategies. Young people will learn to document encounters with authorities, support peers facing criminalization, and build power in educational spaces.
Sample workshops: De-escalation, Know Your Rights practice responses, Community Organizing 101, Organizing within school community, etc.
Strategy Sessions Track
Facilitated strategic dialogue between youth organizers, adult allies, and artists for the purpose of seeding collaborative action, alignment, and next steps beyond the conference.
Arts and Culture Track
Art builds, youth art-led workshops, and strategic conversations exploring: How do we shift harmful narratives and uplift community-centered narratives? What cultural interventions create openings for policy change? How do we tap into artistic mediums such as media, visual arts, and more to drive narrative change? This track will produce both tangible cultural products and deeper strategic alignments.
