Model and Strategy
LOUD For Tomorrow is a grassroots, queer and trans BIPOC youth-led organization based in Delano (Kern County), California, that is building youth power to transform Central Valley schools and communities through civic engagement, advocacy, and community healing.
Founded in 2018, LOUD trains and supports young people of color to lead local issue campaigns with an environmental and electoral justice lens. LOUD organizers mobilize young voters and organize people power to hold Tulare and Kern County elected officials accountable in their planning practices and for increasing transparency in city budgets; and to advocate locally for gun violence prevention, addressing injustices within the housing sector, and an end to police and ICE violence. LOUD also ensures that impacted young people have a say in school board meetings and school budgeting activities.
“If we organize and train the next generation of leaders to combat local and systemic issues, we can create a Central Valley for all to thrive in.” – LOUD for Tomorrow Theory of Change
LOUD’s membership and internship programs and activities center around building youth power and leadership. Its paid Youth Organizing Internship trains core youth leaders in grassroots and digital community organizing and issue-based campaigning, with programming that is relevant to current social problems and that uplifts ethnic studies of resistance within California’s Central Valley, including the farm worker movement. To build a powerful base of young leaders, LOUD’s grassroots membership program pairs members with staff and team leads to strengthen their organizing and mobilization capacity. In addition to participating in campaigns, members engage integrated voter engagement practices such as voter registration and voter contact. LOUD also offers members healing activities and community care workshops.
LOUD for Tomorrow has two key goals for the next two to three years. One is to increase staff and volunteer capacity in its membership programs, to sustain and deepen leadership development of more young people. The second is to expand its healing justice and mental wellness work: building political and healing justice frameworks that bridge youth organizing and intergenerational holistic healing; cultivating a network of local healers and artists to sustain an ecosystem of homegrown healers; and expanding a referral system for members and other community youth to access mental health therapists and other social services.
Impact
LOUD 4 Tomorrow gauges the impact of its membership and internship programs in terms of increased civic engagement (including increased youth participation in local government, and increased youth voter turnout in Tulare and Kern Counties); comprehension of political and healing justice frameworks; and individual leadership development milestones along the organization’s ladders of engagement. LOUD also anticipates making long-term follow-ups with youth organizers to understand the impact of their LOUD experience on their journey in social and political movement work. For healing justice programming, key metrics include knowledge and utilization of different healing modalities. Among LOUD’s recent accomplishments on the organizing and advocacy fronts:
Voter Engagement. In Fall 2022 LOUD hosted a Get Out The Vote Pop Up tour, “Juntos Por El Valle” which included efforts like door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, mass texting, and a branded bus tour to 10 rural communities across Tulare and Kern Counties to encourage community members to get out to vote. From these efforts 11,500+ texts were sent to voters, 4,050 phonbanking contacts, and over 100 doors knocked to reach young voters of color. Voter engagement work culminated in GenteFest ‘22, a free concert and youth civic engagement + cultural healing activation that featured national acts and drew in over 800 people.
Delano Rent Control Campaign. Since January 2022, youth have been working together to push the City Council to bring rent control to Delano: phone banking, hosting community events, and mobilizing public comment. In November, the Council approved a motion for staff to draft an ordinance that will be brought back for a final vote in February 2023. If passed, Delano will be the first city in Central Valley to pass rent control. It will also be the most comprehensive ordinance in the state to protect tenants. These efforts are being led in partnership with Tenants Together, Central Valley Empowerment Alliance and Delano Guardians.
In 2023, LOUD is excited to begin a strategic planning process which will help the organization define the next five years of growth and stabilization, as it transitions from a startup organization to a mature, sustainable youth-led organization.
Leadership
-
Jose Orellana
Co-Executive Director
-
Anai Paniagua
Co-Executive Director
-
Marivel Servin
Leadership Development Director
-
Monike Reynozo
Program Manager
-
Jocelyn Frias
Youth Organizer
-
Biviana Camacho
Youth Organizer