BYOP is a live community of youth, supported by adults, who are fighting for justice in the Boston area and beyond! They are involved in local, regional, and national projects for social and youth justice.
BYOP was created in 1996 by youth who wanted to organize to make a positive change in their community. The unique youth-led structure puts YOUTH in the leadership position at our organization – they make the decisions, they lead the way, they create the change, they inspire their peers.
They promote counter-cultural values by:
- seeking JUSTICE,
- strengthening DEMOCRACY
- building COMMUNITY and bridging across differences,
- increasing YOUTH LEADERSHIP,
- encouraging RESPONSIBILITY to take action,
- taking ACTION
- fostering INTEGRITY, and
- having RESPECT and COMPASSION towards one another.
BYOP began more than ten years ago and was originally known as the Roxbury Church Collaborative. This was at a time when youth violence claimed many victims in Boston neighborhoods, a group of pastors decided to create a space for youth to take positive ownership of their communities.
Liz Steinhauser, the group’s first organizer, brought together many neighborhood church youth groups to work toward this purpose. The Roxbury Church Collaborative grew beyond its community to other areas of Boston and began to include public schools and Jewish organizations in addition to churches, we became the Boston Youth Organizing Project.
BYOP with Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, bringing over 500 (of roughly 4,000 total attendees) to their founding assembly and forming a strong partnership in which we supported each other in campaigns.As well as alliances with countless other youth and community organizations with like-minded goals and values. BYOP went on to sign a contract with Boston Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Payzant to improve bathroom facilities in public schools; got Mayor Menino and the Boston City Council to add $1 million to the BPS budget for textbooks, passed the first legislation in the country to lower the local voting age (currently pending at state level) and won numerous local campaigns through school & congregational chapters.
To learn more about BYOP visit www.byop.org!
