Youth MOJO Spotlight: “The most important part is we have this community.”
Calvin’s Reflections
My name is Calvin, I’m 15 years old, a sophomore at International High School and a new member of CPA this year. My first exposure to CPA was when a good friend of mine requested for me to join a fundraiser event hosted by MOJO as a guest. After conversing with the MOJO community and getting a good sense of the vibe, I applied to be a MOJOer this fall semester. After joining, I found myself creating connections with new people looking forward to every meeting and events.
Youth MOJO is a smaller program composed of high school youths within CPA, along with our adult leaders. MOJO teaches high school youths about ongoing issues and spreads awareness about those issues. For this fall semester, we came up with a campaign called CAR [Campaign Action Research] where we collected data from people affected by the issue [and] social-economic justice. [Each] MOJO member sent out a survey to as many people of color as they can who are around the age of 14-24. The campaign is important to me and my peers because it fosters teamwork, support, encouragement, and confidence.
After being a part of MOJO for a good amount of time, I felt pretty close to my peers. The campaign and other events made my peers and I stick together and communicate with each other. From those events, I’ve learned to be more supportive and encouraging towards my peers. I think that that is the purpose of MOJO. We get to learn about issues and learn how to take action, but the most important part is that we have this community that we are a part of.
Taking action, steps forward, and out of your comfort zone can be hard, but in CPA/MOJO, we aren’t carrying that burden alone; we are able to share it with others and support each other and that is the reason why I feel more confident in these specific skills because, before anything, MOJO is a supportive community. 🙂
— Calvin, Youth MOJO member (and incoming Youth Core Leader!)
Over the past semester, Youth MOJO launched an Economic Justice Survey to identify priority issues for a campaign. Youth identified research methods, directly outreached to their classmates and peers, and closed the survey last week, reaching above their goal with 570 responses!
About Chinese Progressive Association: Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) is a nonprofit that educates, organizes and empowers the low-income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people. CPA has been organizing with workers in San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant community since the 1970s.
About Youth MOJO: Youth Movement of Justice and Organizing (MOJO) is a youth leadership development program of the Chinese Progressive Association for high school students in San Francisco. Youth MOJO works on social justice issues affecting low-income Chinese families such as healthcare, education, immigration, and workers’ rights by empowering young people to work towards positive change in our communities. Through Youth MOJO, youth develop and strengthen leadership, public speaking, outreaching, communication, advocacy and organizing skills while having fun and meeting new friends in a friendly and engaging environment.
