Mission

The Youth Empowerment Center, founded in April 2000, strives to build strong youth leaders and strong youth organizations to work for social justice in the Bay Area and beyond. By providing fiscal sponsorship, as well as technical assistance on financial management, fundraising and organizational development, YEC strengthens the capacity of our member projects to do innovative and effective social justice work. YEC is also a movement center located in the Prescott Neighborhood of West Oakland, and serves as a vital gathering place for youth and community activists and artists from all over the Bay Area.

History

YEC was founded in Spring 2000 by four up-and-coming youth-serving projects: C-Beyond, a youth organizing project in Concord, CA; the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), a organizer training center for young people; Underground Railroad, an arts and culture youth project; and Youth Force Coalition, a network of youth organizations that works to end the prison industrial complex. (w/ links_)

These groups formed a significant force that fought against Proposition 21, the so-called Juvenile “Justice” Initiative. This initiative, which passed in 1999, transformed the juvenile justice system in California from one of rehabilitation to one of rapid incarceration. To challenge this initiative, these groups worked with many other youth organizations from around the state to create an exciting youth-led grassroots campaign. SOUL trained youth organizers for the No on Prop 21 campaign, Youth Force Coalition helped to bring groups together to take on the fight collectively, Underground Railroad created hip-hop rhymes that used campaign messages, and C-Beyond brought youth from the suburban East Bay cities of Concord and Pittsburg into the fight.

Despite the loss of the Prop 21 fight, these four groups moved forward in their social justice struggle to found the YEC- as a movement center dedicated to developing youth power in the Bay Area. Since we opened our doors in 2000, the YEC has grown into an important gathering place for folks from the Bay and beyond, and provided crucial support for dozens of youth and community organizations in various ways.