This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Youth United for Change, a local nonprofit organizing group, is due to receive an award for youth activism at the “Hot Schott Awards Gala” this Friday, December 9, during the three-day National Opportunity to Learn Education Summit in Washington, DC.
The awards, given by the Schott Foundation, recognize “activists and organizations who have demonstrated exceptional commitment and achieved extraordinary results in advocating for equity in public education.”
YUC student activists were very involved this year in bringing about changes in the zero-tolerance discipline policy in Philadelphia and highlighting the stories of students “pushed out” of schools.
The organization, founded in 1991, also successfully campaigned to block the proposed closing of most of the District’s privately run alternative schools that seek to reconnect students who haven’t completed high school and want to return.
Other recipients to be honored at the gala include the Wisconsin Education Association Council and Jerry Weast, former superintendent of the Montgomery County, Md. schools.