Californians For Justice Education Fund Inc

Programs: Californians for justice education fund, inc. S four regional offices in fresno, long beach, oakland, and san jose organized 250 students to address educational inequities. In 2016, cfj youth won several victories as part of our relationship centered schools campaign that is focused on supporting educators and students to build relationships that embrace and empower all students to pursue their dreams. Those victories included more funding for restorative practices, student and parent engagement, and counseling and wellness supports. Cfj youth also engaged in the local control funding formula budget process in four school districts where they advocated for equity, transparency, and accountability in their districts budget decisions. As part of the 2016 elections, cfj led a get out the vote campaign that engaged almost 10,000 young and first-time voters of color. Leadership development250 youth leaders participated in cfjs year-round leadership development program, which focuses on political education, skills building, and personal growth. The program features three intensive training institutes in addition to weekly and monthly programming. Campaignscfj engaged more than 3,000 youth, allies, community members, and educators in relationship centered schools and lcff campaign efforts throughout the year. Cfj mobilized 400 youth and parents to sacramento to advocate for school climate measurements in the lcff rubric - the system by which the state will assess school quality. In addition to local wins, in september 2016, cfj won the adoption of key recommendations for the lcff rubric, including a) school climate and engagement measures (suspensions and chronic absence) as two of the six state indicators for accountability; b) an equity report to flag racial, ethnic, and other student groups that are falling behind; and c) a commitment from the california department of education to develop a statewide school climate survey and parent engagement measures.