New York 2 New Orleans

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Growing Youth Organizers at Millions March NYC on December 13, 2014

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

DECEMBER 2014 NEWSLETTER

What have we been up to?

Growing Youth Organizers/NY2NO has been busy planning day trips, fundraiser concerts, and new workshops! On October 26, we went on a day trip to the Life Do Grow farm in Philadelphia, where we visited last summer. In addition to organizing our upcoming trip this February to Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we are organizing initiatives to farm in NYC. At our biweekly meetings we have been organizing workshops on a wide range of social justice issues.

“How can I help?”

NY2NO is unique in that we are committed to (and dependent on) being an entirely youth led operation. If you miss NY2NO and want to contribute to our scholarship fund so we are able to support as many young people's involvement as possible, please mail donations to: Maya Bernstein, 387 3rd street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Please make out checks to IFCO/NY2NO. We are also looking for a chaperone for our February 14-21 trip. Please contact us at newyork2neworleans@gmail.com if you are interested.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

NY2NO at the People's Climate March, 9/21/14!

Sage

Sage and Maia

End corporate control of food!

Sage, Maia, Sage, Maya, Anna

Monday, September 15, 2014

First GYO Meeting

NY2NO's first GYO meeting of the 2014-2015 year will be on September 20th. We will prepare to march in the People's Climate March on September 21st and make plans for the year. Please join us!!

Our first meeting will be on September 20th at noon, 387 3rd street between 5th and 6th avenues in Park Slope.

Email Maya Bernstein (m.bernstein33@gmail.com) or Mila Stieglitz-Courtney (mstieglitz27@gmail.com) for more information!

NY2NO 2014 SUMMER TRIPS TO PHILADELPHIA

Life Do Grow

This summer, NY2NO traveled to North-Central Philadelphia to work on Life Do Grow farm in collaboration with the Philadelphia Urban Creators. Two trips went from July 1st-19th. We would like to thank PUC for welcoming us into their community! We had a great time, stay tuned for updates on our upcoming day trips this fall.

Group one organizers

Group two organizers

Summer group two!

Courtesy of Calvin Schneider

Summer group one!

Courtesy of Calvin Schneider


Courtesy of Calvin Schneider

Friday, May 16, 2014

New York 2 New Orleans

General Mission/Who We Are:

NY2NO is a youth led organization established to create a network of young people who are interested in organizing and mobilizing across New York City. NY2NO works in solidarity with those most affected by the social, racial, and economic inequalities in both New York, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. We break down barriers and work together to combat racism and classism in the hopes of moving towards a more egalitarian society.

A Brief History:

Although many NY2NO organizers went on their first trips down to New Orleans with their schools, the students realized that they wanted to create a coalition separate and free from the usual administrative power of adults and that brought together youth from across New York City. Following this demand NY2NO was formed as a student organization under which trips to New Orleans could be organized. Now it has become a network of New York City High School students interested in organizing and mobilizing around the parallel struggles of New Orleans and their own communities.

Trips:

Since the summer of 2007, we have organized over 35 New Orleans brigades, bringing over 1000 high school students back to New York with organizing skills, a greater understanding of the injustices within America, and ideas about how they can create change and combat these issues.
During the trips we do farm work alongside the employees of Our School at Blair Grocery and youth from the Lower Ninth Ward. Some of what we have done in the past includes composting, gutting houses, building fences, doing community outreach, attending community meetings, planting, and cooking. In addition to manual labor, we create and participate in workshops about a variety of issues including: racism, classism, gender inequity, food injustice, environmental injustice, movement building, and more. We explore these issues within New Orleans and then continue to analyze them within our broader New York City communities.

How We Operate:

Whether it be in an organizational meeting or in a debrief, NY2NO operates through consensus decision-making in order to eliminate a minority of people who will be displeased by a majority rule decision. This also encourages groups thinking and feeling together in a free space called the People's Circle. NY2NO believes that by using consensus they are creating a model of participatory democracy and focusing on the constant forward process of the entire group. In order to ensure that decisions are made by consensus, a member of the People's Circle takes on the role of facilitator to mediate the emotions, decisions and progress of the discussions. When a decision cannot be made because a group or individual within the circle feels strongly enough to not stand aside on the issue, the decision is discussed further until a consensus can be reached.

Fiscal Sponsor:

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/Pastors for Peace is an ecumenical agency whose mission is to help forward the struggles of oppressed peoples for justice and self-determination and they are also NY2NO's wonderful Fiscal Sponsor. They provide our 5o1c3 official non-profit status that enables us to receive tax exempt donations, and they also facilitate our finances. IFCO/Pastors for Peace have always been incredibly supportive of all of our visions and projects and without them none of our work would be possible.

GYO:

In New York City we have created a group called GYO, which stands for Growing Youth Organizers. Growing Youth Organizers is an autonomous group of New York 2 New Orleans organizers engaging in reflective dialogue and direct action. GYO is a program designed to enable the development of students’ facilitation and organizing skills, as well as foster a deeper critical analysis of issues in New York and New Orleans, though this program focuses mostly on work within NYC. Students work together on tasks such as: outreach proposals and projects, designing curriculum, planning fundraisers, and refining structures of our service-learning brigades.