Communities for Just Schools Fund

"The promise of this country was never designed to fully include all of us."

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Advancement Project Interim Executive Director Carmen Daugherty isn't interested in celebration for its own sake. She's asking a harder question: what are we willing to build instead?

Her piece cuts through the mythology of American exceptionalism to center what organizers, communities, and movement leaders already know — that the next 250 years won't be written by courts or institutions alone. They'll be written by people who are organized, resourced, and unafraid to demand something better.

Read it and share it: https://advancementproject.org/perspective/250-years-later-its-time-to-build-the-country-we-were-promised/

“Young people across the country are leading the way. The rest of us need only follow.”

CJSF’s organizing partners, Leidy Robledo and Keno Walker of Alliance for Educational Justice, along with Nico Bernardo, CJSF’s Communications & Development Manager, offer clear answers for funders, educators, and policymakers looking to support young people in this moment in a piece for the SPARK blog — “Stepping Into Power: How Student Walkouts are Safeguarding Communities and Public Education.”

Big thanks to the Foundation for Child Development for providing a platform for amplifying the charge.

Link for article in our bio!

“Young people across the country are leading the way. The rest of us need only follow.”

CJSF’s organizing partners, Leidy Robledo and Keno Walker of Alliance for Educational Justice, along with Nico Bernardo, CJSF’s Communications & Development Manager, offer clear answers for funders, educators, and policymakers looking to support young people in this moment in a piece for the SPARK blog — "Stepping Into Power: How Student Walkouts are Safeguarding Communities and Public Education."

Big thanks to the Foundation for Child Development for providing a platform for amplifying the charge.

Read the article here 🔗 https://www.fcd-us.org/stepping-into-power-how-student-walkouts-are-safeguarding-communities-and-public-education/

What does justice look like when the systems presumed to protect us cause harm instead?

That's the question at the heart of "We Protect Us" — a youth-led zine from GSA Network and Transgender Law Center that challenges how communities respond to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, and imagines what safety could look like without relying on policing or incarceration.

Written by youth research fellow Jacqueline Pham and illustrated by Jessica Nguyen, the zine centers young people, their experiences, their questions, and their vision for a world where community care is the first response to harm.

Read and share it for free: https://ourtranstruth.org/we-protect-us-zine/

"Youth are coming together to change the narrative, because people view us as troublemakers… but we're not bad kids."

That's Arianna Brandt, a senior at Michele Clark Academic Prep and a Communities United youth leader — quoted this week on the front page of the Chicago Tribune.

She and her peers convened a mental health summit this past Saturday to co-design a five-year plan for young people in Chicago. Not designed for youth. Designed by youth.

Congratulations to Communities United for years of building the conditions that make moments like this possible.

Read the full piece here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/15/youth-mental-health-summit-convenes-youth-community-organizations/?share=e6oentauthmeamt5ihac

Mental health summit convenes youth and community organizations to create plan for next generation Chicago teens will share their ideas at a mental health summit at the El Centro Library and Learning Center at Northeastern Illinois University.

Last week, the CJSF Co-Governance and Youth Mental Health Cohorts came together in Oakland. 🤝🏽

Organizers, advocates and funders from across the country — Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, New York, North Carolina, and California — gathered to dig into what co-governance really looks like in practice and how schools can build nurturing systems for the mental health of students in their care.

A highlight: a site visit to in Richmond, where youth have space to create, lead, and thrive. It was everything this work is about.

Four days of real conversations, connections, and collective vision. More to come from these visionary cohorts led by and 💛

Last week, the CJSF Co-Governance and Youth Mental Health Cohorts came together in Oakland. 🤝🏽

Organizers, advocates and funders from across the country — Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, New York, North Carolina, and California — gathered to dig into what co-governance really looks like in practice and how schools can build nurturing systems for the mental health of students in their care.

A highlight: a site visit to RYSE Center in Richmond, where youth have space to create, lead, and thrive. It was everything this work is about.

Four days of real conversations, connections, and collective vision. More to come from these visionary cohorts led by Communities United and Partners for Dignity & Rights. 💛

Richmond young people didn’t wait for change. They reimagined it.

After a decade of sustained youth-led organizing, and the Richmond community have secured $99 million and a renewed 10-year commitment to healing, opportunity, safety, and belonging for young people in Richmond, CA.

This is what holistic safety actually looks like — not the absence of danger, but the presence of care. Investment in mental health. In career pathways. In the conditions that allow young people to imagine futures beyond survival.

In a moment of relentless attacks on public education and the communities it serves, Richmond is proof that the terrain is not only being defended. It is being transformed.

This is what community power looks like when it is properly resourced and given room to flourish.

Richmond young people didn't wait for change. They reimagined it.

After a decade of sustained youth-led organizing, RYSE Center and the Richmond community have secured $99 million and a renewed 10-year commitment to healing, opportunity, safety, and belonging for young people in Richmond, CA.

This is what holistic safety actually looks like — not the absence of danger, but the presence of care. Investment in mental health. In career pathways. In the conditions that allow young people to imagine futures beyond survival.

In a moment of relentless attacks on public education and the communities it serves, Richmond is proof that the terrain is not only being defended. It is being transformed.

This is what community power looks like when it is properly resourced and given room to flourish.

🗞️ Read more: https://richmondside.org/2026/04/08/richmond-approves-99-million-for-youth-nonprofits/

Two wins. One community. Movimiento Poder students are changing the game in Denver.

Denver North High School student Matthew Pulido testified in support of the ACCESS Act (SB26-103), which would require school districts to publicly post their plans for directing resources to historically underserved students. The bill has passed out of the House Education Committee and is headed to the Governor's desk.

And just last week, the Denver school board unanimously adopted a new policy protecting students from immigration enforcement at schools and school-sponsored events — prohibiting the district from granting immigration agencies access to property, records, or student information without a valid judicial warrant. Board members specifically credited Movimiento Poder students for making it happen.

As Movimiento Poder board member DJ Torres put it: "You need to stay on us, because this is how change gets done."

Read more: https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2026/04/24/denver-school-board-policy-protect-students-from-immigration-enforcement/