We (Elizabeth, Dan, and Nushelle) are working with Urban Youth Collaborative, a coalition made up of four youth organizations based out of Brooklyn and the Bronx.

• Make the RoadNew York
• Sistas and Brothas United
• Future of Tomorrow
• Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice

UYC runs a number of campaigns including supporting struggling schools and assisting high-school students with college prep.

We will be working with UYC on their campaign, “Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline”.

At present, the NYPD controls safety in the schools (in Brooklyn and the Bronx) despite being untrained to work with young people. During the partner presentation, Yorman Nunez and Maria Fernandez related examples of the harsh nature of the disciplinary actions taken, explaining that there is clear evidence of racial profiling and that there is a correlation between suspensions and dropping out of school.

Currently, Yorman and Maria are seeking a means to tell the stories of these students to a larger audience as a means for change. However, documenting these stories is a difficult process.

We are thinking about creating a workshop aimed towards young people in a high school that Maria could run to gather ideas in her community about how to get feedback. In order to come up with a preliminary model that caters to students, we are contacting The Urbano Project, Medicine Wheel Productions, Raw Art Works, and Zumix to invite local high school students to the DiscoTech.

So far we have not yet heard back from our partners, so we will keep trying to contact them to better plan our DiscoTech events.

-Elizabeth, Dan, and Nushelle