INITIATIVE
YouthBuild Diversity Ambassador Program
An award-winning leadership program delivered in schools for 6th - 12th graders.
Our School-Based
Education Program
The YouthBuild Diversity Ambassador Program (YouthBuild DAP) was established to counter the culture of insensitivity and intolerance by arming students with education, skills, and mentorship – tools that necessarily maximize their potential for excellence and for being healthy, productive members of our communities.
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The YouthBuild DAP provides a safe space for students to share their stories for the purpose of affirming their unique, personal identities and experiences. The goal of the YouthBuild Diversity Ambassador Program is to provide leadership opportunities for yourth, to mitigate the harmful impacts of racial, ethnic, and social bias by affirming personal identity and experiences, promoting solidarity, and equipping students with hard interpersonal and leadership skills.
Addressing Youth Vulnerability
An analysis of the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) 2019 results – a biannual survey of students – reveals that students in grades 6 through 12 are vulnerable to antisocial behaviors (ASB), including use and abuse of harmful substances, violence, and gang related activity. Such antisocial behaviors can lead to crime, violence, delinquency, and poor academic performance (https://www.pccd.pa.gov).
Furthermore, children are acutely sensitive to societal upheaval, such as the wave of social dissonance and violence that many of our communities have witnessed and/or experienced following the COVID-19 pandemic. These stressful events can be destabilizing, even traumatic, and lead to greater anxiety and mental health issues among our youth.
Schools are Encouraged to Apply for the YouthBuild Ambassador Program
The Coalition for Justice can work with your school to deliver this program to 6th through 12th graders. We can be flexible with scheduling, but we can only provide this program for a limited time during each school year.
For the Coalition to collaborate with your school please complete the application below and a Coalition Program Representative will reach out to you. We look forward to the possibility of working with you and learning more about your school, your student populations and your goals.
We Want To Partner With Your School
YouthBuild Diversity Ambassador Program
The Coalition4Justice welcomes the opportunity to partner with your school/district to deliver our YouthBuild Program. Please fill out the form below and a member of our program staff will contact you shortly. Thank you for your interest in the Coalition4Justice Youth Build Diversity Ambassador Program!
Sources:
Learning for Justice, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 400 Washington Ave, Montgomery, Alabama 36104
WelcomingSchools.org, Cooperative Extension Service of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Lexington, Kentucky 40546
“Stop Bullying Now”, US Department of Health and Human Services
​PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, Minneapolis, MN 55437
The pandemic unveiled insensitivity and intolerance with respect to differences among people, on the basis of race, ethnicity and class, for example. Studies have documented that students in grades K-12 are suffering increasing events of micro-aggression, biased-based bullying, and cyberspace harassment. Insensitivity and intolerance present a direct threat to the prospects for success of those children confronted by negative attitudes. Our YouthBuild Diversity Ambassador Program educates and help mitagate these effects.