Our Strategy:
Defense. Power. Liberation.
Our strategy is rooted in a simple belief: youth have the power to transform the systems that harm them.
Across the country, youth of color are organizing to defend against state violence, build collective power, and create liberatory alternatives.
Through Defense, Power, and Liberation, AEJ connects local fights into a national movement for educational justice:
Defense
We organize youth to protect their communities from state violence — from policing and surveillance to the daily violence of neglect and disinvestment. Through rapid response, mutual aid, and organizing, we defend youth dignity and collective safety.
Power
We strengthen the capacity of youth and their organizations to contest and reshape the state. Through political education, youth assemblies, and coordinated campaigns, we move policies, budgets, and institutions toward justice.
Liberation
We practice abolition as creation — not only dismantling systems of harm but building what must exist in their place. Through the Youth Movement Anchors and our Education for Liberation work, youth experiment, teach, and lead in reimagining education as a site of care, creativity, and freedom.
