About the Institute

Reclaiming Our Dreams Youth Leadership Institute, initiated by the University of Louisville College of Arts & Sciences, is a year-long project, funded in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in partnership with Jefferson County Race Community and Child Welfare Initiative and Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness's Center for Health Equity.

WHAT AND WHO
The program will provide middle and high school students from West Louisville communities (such as Shawnee and Portland) opportunities to engage with peers, families, and their communities in innovative ways:

• Dynamic teambuilding and leadership development activities
• Cross‐generational training and education in human rights
• Digital story telling development 
• Community mapping projects to frame anti‐racist oral history of Portland and Shawnee neighborhoods

PROGRAM GOALS
Students who participate in this program will:

• Increase confidence and competence through support of college and adult mentors
• Become strong social justice leaders
• Address neighborhood issues through service learning opportunities

WHEN
This year-long project launches with a 2 1/2 day training in a nationally-recognized People's Institute for Survival and Beyond: "Undoing Racism" workshop"in October 2010, followed by a second workshop in December.  The Youth Leadership Institute will continue meeting Saturdays during the school year, and conclude with a June 2011 summer camp. 

Undoing Racism: Portland Community Center, September 30-October 2, 2010

The Reclaiming Our Dream: Youth Leadership Institute (ROD) kicked off the year-long program Friday, Septmeber 30, 2010 with a spaghetti dinner at the Portland Community Center. 

The first of two "Undoing Racism" community organizing workshops, led by The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, to better understand the structure and function of racism and discover community-based strategies for creating positive social change.

Through discussion, reflection, and role-playing, students from Jefferson County Public Schools analyzed structures of power and privilege challenging social equity, discovering what it takes to be an effective social justice community organizer.

The workshop provided the foundations for understanding many forms of racism - individual, institutional, linguistic, and cultural - by developing a common language for analzying U.S. racism; understanding one's personal connection to institutional racism; analyzing structures perpetuating poverty and exacerbating institutional racism; investing historical context for racial classifications; addressing assumptions of race and racism; developing solutions for change among families, organizations and communities.

Funded in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the project aims to empower young leaders to play a constructive role in the development of human rights in their communities and the world. 

The group will continue to meet Saturdays (9am-1pm) during the school year, at the Shawnee Boys & Girls Club, and close with a two-week summer camp in June 2011.