In 2017, EVC partnered with the NYC DOE Office of Postsecondary Readiness to provide semester-long professional development training for teachers in 2 NYC high schools --- Innovation Diploma Program High School and High School for Excellence & Innovation --- and coached them to lead their students in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) projects. The result was the creation of 3 impactful student documentaries. Within the broad topic of policing, students and teachers explored their own experiences and beliefs and identified relevant problem areas that they wanted to explore: the effects of gentrification on policing, policing in a sanctuary city, and police accountability & citizen rights.

What emerged through the lens of this YPAR initiative were not only these impressive documentaries, but engaged, empowered students who collaboratively transformed their ideas, energy, reluctance and insecurities into 3 powerful products to affect positive social change. Along the way these students found their voices, asked hard questions, and discovered agency to act on issues that are deeply relevant to their lives and those of their community.

We invite you to hear from the teachers about their experiences, watch these students in action, and consider how you can use YPAR to help your students become leaders of positive change.

The Making of Youth Powered Change

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR): a research approach that intentionally places young people at the center of the process as experts in their own experience, their own communities, and the issues they face.

Listen to NYC transfer high school teachers and students talk about their YPAR projects and what they gained through the process.

ENFORCED OUT.mp4

POLICE & GENTRIFICATION

Enforced Out: Gentrification and Policing

“Enforced Out: Gentrification and Policing” gives voice to the perspectives of youth activists on the changing fabric of their communities. The film examines the impact of these changes on the lives of neighborhood residents, and the often neglected connections between gentrification and police practices. Revealing interviews with experts and community members bring historical context to what it means to be “enforced out” of one’s own community, both today and throughout history.

Robin Bacigalupo, ELA Teacher

Innovation Diploma Plus High School

Is Justice an Anomaly- Youth Perspectives on Policing.mp4

POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY

Is Justice an Anomaly? Youth Perspectives on Policing

An examination of how youth of color are impacted by policing in schools and their communities. Students conducted research and interviewed experts in law enforcement, from the academy, and a political leader about how they can begin to contribute to the movement to improve police-community relations.

Carla Cherry, English Teacher

Innovation Diploma Plus High School

Sanctuary Now.mp4

SANCTUARY CITIES

Sanctuary Now

NYC has been touted as a sanctuary city by politicians and the NYPD for undocumented immigrants. But experts claim that when immigrants get arrested for petty offenses, they are at risk for deportation. In these instance, NYC fails to be a sanctuary city. Students from HSEI decided to get answers on this controversy and created “Sanctuary Now” as a result.

Lydia Howrilka, Social Studies Teacher

High School for Excellence and Innovation