YOU’VE GOT VISION, DRIVE, AND PASSION
there is a movement for social justice growing across the country and you want to be a part of it. STARC brings together youth and student activists who want to learn how to effectively organize on their campuses or in their communities, and work toward justice and freedom.*Introducing The Fifth Annual STARC Summer Institute*
The Summer Institute
is an intensive 8-week training program for youth and student activists from across the country that takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area every summer. The Summer Institute will teach participants essential organizing skills through direct participation, while developing participants’ anti-oppression analyses. The program brings together eight to ten participants who come from diverse personal and political backgrounds, and each will receive a small monthly stipend for their participation. Most importantly, all of this political work and personal development will take place within a challenging and supportive community.STARC
is a national network of youth and student activists and organizers who are working for racial and economic justice through our programs and coalitions. As an entirely youth-lead and democratically run organization, we build power as youth and students to challenge a social and economic system that exploits resources while reinforcing privilge and oppression. STARC recognizes that true change comes through local grassroots organizing of and alongside traditionally marginalized communities that are most affected by economic, racial, and other forms of injustice. The Summer Institute is currently STARC’s major organizing project.The STARC Summer Institute is composed of four different elements: Community organizing internships, political education, individual mentoring, and community building.
Through
Internships
with strategically selected non-profit organizations throughout the Bay Area, participants will learn community-based organizing skills while working on various projects and campaigns. Previous host organizations have included the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, Green Action, Youth Gender Project, San Francisco Women Against Rape, the San Francisco Day Labor Program, PODER, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, the Destiny Arts Center, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.Political Education
workshops held every Friday, along with selected reading materials, provide participants w ith skills and analysis applicable to the organizing work carried out at their internships. These are just a few of the trainings we have offered along with the presenters listed in parentheses: Leadership Development (Catalyst Project), Our Histories of Struggle (School of Unity and Liberation), Fundraising for Social Change, Classism (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz), Queer Youth Issues (Community United Against Violence), Counter Military Recruitment: Connecting the Dots between Racism and Militarism (STARC), Environmental Racism (Green Action), Disability in Radical Communities, The Healthcare Crisis (Women’s Economic Agenda Project), and Israel/Palestine and Anti-Jewish Oppression (Jewish Youth Center).Individual Mentoring
allows participants to work through personal barriers to effective organizing and connect personal relationships with political work. Participants and their internship contacts are encouraged to work together to address each participant’s struggle in organizing and in the organization. Each participant will also have the opportunity for personal, one-on-one check-ins with the program coordinators over the summer to ensure that the program is meeting the needs of each participant and to help guide each participant through any conflicts that may arise. Additional mentoring opportunities can be developed through connections with other activists in the area.Community Building
is perhaps one of the most unique components of the STARC Summer Institute. Collective living gives participants the opportunity to create an intentional and supportive environment from which they will carry out their work and personal development. Each year we strive to select participants from different regions, cultural backgrounds, ethnic communities, and learning experiences.Participant Fundraising:
Participants selected for the Summer Institute are expected to do some fundraising to help cover the costs of the program; however, you will receive extensive support from our fundraising committee. We only ask that participants access the resources that are available to them. Through the support of the fundraising committee, past participants have been able to fundraise between $200 and $2000 each. STARC will provide housing and a small monthly stipend for all participants. Some additional scholarships are available, so we encourage everyone to apply and talk to us about making special arrangements if costs are prohibitive. After four consecutive years of operation the Summer Institute has become a well recognized program that makes positive social change by challenging the root causes of oppression on systemic and personal levels. STARC focuses on leadership development as a core component of movement building while also supporting the work of kick-ass organizations in the Bay Area especially those led by and for poor folks and communities of color - by offering them interns to support their work. The Summer Institute will begin around the second week of June depending on applicants’ schedules, and will be completed around mid-August.
Application is available in PDF or HTML
Application is due on February 14th***The STARC Alliance is an affirmative action network, womyn, queer people, people of color, trans people, and poor people are very encouraged to apply!***