Youth Informed Club
About Us
Hi! This is the website for a school club called Youth Informed (previously called the Political Theory Club)- run by 2 current seniors with an interest in politics and healthy conversation. We aim to facilitate open-minded discussion on political issues and to encourage civic engagement through volunteering and other community activities.
Youth Informed was featured on Good Day Forest Hills!
Our Mission
Current events affect all of us, indirectly and directly, and being able to understand these issues is critical to the formation of a healthy community. We want to create a space where as students, we can have discussions on topics we feel are important. To understand the issues we face today, we must be able to understand the complexity and history behind them. And alongside the history, the different standpoints that people identify with. Through discussion, students will be exposed to these various views, and expand their interpretation of the real world. Our voices as students are important, as we are upcoming members of society facing these problems firsthand. The Youth Informed Club will be an environment where students express and learn.
Why Start This Club?
In a school as large as Forest Hills, it's important to have a space for expression. Past clubs have broken down due to a lack of representation and a lack of comfort. We wanted to take a different approach to politics where research is prioritized and uplifting others is a necessity.
Our Goals
To create and maintain a comfortable environment where students can express themselves
To encourage others to enter discussion with open minds
To research thoughtfully so that conclusions drawn are perceptive
To become well-rounded individuals
Students do not have to be experts in a topic to participate!
Why Books and What is Theory?
Due to the accessibility of information on the internet, we often forget that books exist. Many discussions about social justice start off as a debate of current events, but unfold into the question of why?
Why do these problems exist? What systems are in place that allow or encourage hierarchies in race, class, or socioeconomic standing? To answer these questions, we want to turn to books. What have past and modern-day authors proposed as the explanation? What can we take away from their theories?
Theory is a framework that we can use to interpret society. As people, we are limited to our own perspectives. Theory allows us to consider that an issue may affect another more severely than ourselves. As youth, we see the need for change but solutions are hardly found unless the problem is seen from different angles.