Welcome to our blog space dedicated to truly exploring the journey of transformation, liberation and the incredible strength found in youth perspective.
The Purpose Behind Our Blog
Our mission is simple: to share stories of change, to amplify youth voices, and to recognize how much wisdom there is to gain from young people. Every experience, every conversation, and every action taken by youth in their communities can teach us something powerful. I am privileged to share their experiences.
Youth Activism: The Engine of Social Justice
I am writing this blog because I have been thinking a lot lately about the role of social and emotional learning, youth and transformational change. While we often look at the impact of courageous actions, I am interested in moments in which youth manage their emotions, find their purpose and embrace their social responsibility to make thriving and just communities.
Wherever I have the opportunity to work with youth, I am reminded time and again how youth activism has sparked transformation in movements for social justice. For example, Linda Brown was only eleven years old when she integrated into an all-White elementary school in Topeka, Kansas in 1954. On another occasion, a courageous group of nine youth between the ages of 14-17 broke barriers in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. In both instances in the 50’s while litigation opened the doors for integrated schools, it was Black youth who answered the call for justice. They found the courage to endure and make sustainable change.
In 1960, four freshmen attending North Carolina A & T endured taunts and physical assault as they demanded to be treated with dignity. They sought liberation from inhumane “separate but equal” practices as they sat at a White-only lunch counter at a Woolworth in Greensboro. Two and a half months later, a gathering at Shaw University facilitated by Ella Baker brought these young Greensboro activists and others together in Raleigh to form the basis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Speaking on February 16th, 1960, at the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged the incredible power of youth: “ What is new in your fight is the fact that it was initiated, fed, and sustained by students.” (Cobb 1967).
Former SNCC chair and former Congressman John Lewis, at the age of 20, began his journey of good trouble rallying over 200,000 volunteers during the summer and Fall of 1961 in voter registration efforts. Pioneers Stokley Carmichael and H. Rap Brow, leaders of the Black Panther Party moving forward the idea of free lunch, free health clinics, and community patrols in the late 60’ and 70s, were both former chairmen of the SNCC. Youth leadership is clearly the foundation for transformational change.
Recent moments include the Anti-apartheid movement (1980’s) the million man and woman march (1995, 1997), the Black Lives Matter movement (2013), the powerful recorded images provided by Danielle Frazier during the murder of George Floyd In Minneapolis, Minnesota (2020) and current efforts to resist the racial profiling of ICE is continued evidence that youth have the power to mobilize, speak truth to power, and demand change. The passion and persistence of youth are the lifeblood of progress and liberation.
Our Inspiration: Black SEL Advocates
Given the rich history of North Carolina and its youth’s powerful role in the formation of the SNCC, I am inspired then to return to North Carolina to explore the intersection of self-realization, emotional regulation and youth activism. From my experience, the most profound lessons often come straight from the youth themselves.
This blog draws inspiration from focus groups and 1:1 conversations with Black Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) advocates. These remarkable middle and high school students gather monthly to learn about the Black SEL framework (Hopkins-Vincent, Jagers, Moore, Matthews, 2025). Together, the advocates discuss the principles of the Black SEL framework consisting of the pillars of Black Self-Concept, Civic Engagement, Inclusion of Community Stakeholders, Civic Engagement, Lived Civics and Social Responsibility. The framework recognizes the role of power, the need for action for the liberation of the Black community and the need to sustain individuals resisting oppression so that collective social justice can move forward.
The students make the principles of the framework relevant to their own lives, and thoughtfully apply what they’ve learned in their communities. Their commitment of learning and application is a beacon of hope and progress that needs to be shared. Whenever I engage with these students, I am always reminded that “something positive is happening.” In fact, 100% of the first cohort of advocates went on to attend a higher educational institution!
A framework for Analysis and Reflection: Black SEL
On a monthly basis, I will examine a moment/moments that influence the Black SEL advocates. These moments, I contend; are nested in transformative SEL, a form of SEL implementation that focuses on the social and emotional skills to create learning environments that are caring and just (CASEL 2026, Jagers 2019 et al). These caring and just environments provide spaces for both individual and contextual critical examination and have the ability to transform both the individual and the communities in which they reside (Jagers 2019 et al).
However, naming the elements of transformation is not enough. The accumulation of these transformation moments when in a supportive environment of caring adults form a protective factor against an unyielding matrix of domination under the umbrella of White Supremacy that limits educational opportunities, meaningful employment, life expectancy, safety, and other social determinants to healthy lives and healthy communities (Collins 1990). Specifically, transformative spaces when made Black spaces can be liberating when grounded in the unique cultures and histories of Black people (Peoples and Foster 2020). Hopkins and others (2024) believe that transformation can only occur with a framework that supports liberation as defined as the state of being free from oppression, confinement, and exploitation with a realization of one’s true self and the ability to live fully into that realization (Hopkins-Vincent 2026).
Since 2024, this framework has provided the foundation for learners in the yearly Black SEL summer institute, the Black SEL Hub and the Black SEL student advocate program. In all programs, The Black SEL advocates both learn about the pillars of the framework but also have opportunities to apply the framework each month in the Durham community. The process of learning and applying the framework provides a unique opportunity to document the process of liberation. It provides a window into how advocates move from surviving oppression to dismantling it.
Student Reflections: Moments That Matter
Black August in the Park:
In August 2025, Black SEL advocates directly engaged 500 Black Durham community members on voter registration and the importance of voting during the August 2025 Black August in the Park event.
Black August in the Park is an annual event established in 1979 in Durham North Carolina that commemorates the contributions of Black political prisoners and Black revolutionaries who have been part of the struggle for Black liberation. The Durham event annually includes political conversations, music and celebrations of Black cultural heritage. It is estimated that approximately 15,00 Durham residents and the family members attended this once per year gathering.
During Black August in the Park, Black SEL advocates explored the pillars of Black Self-Concept, Civic Engagement, Inclusion of community stakeholders and Lived civics. They engaged 15,000 plus residents, handing out flyers to attendees about the importance of voting as well and engaged in several 1:1 conversations about issues important to Black youth in Durham.
As students asked questions of adults in attendance and conducted what was perceived as according to one youth, “important work.” Students began to learn about the relationship between themselves and their community. This community-individual interaction relationship proved powerful and bridged generations and community.
“I feel like you can see people that look like you but you might not always feel like they’re with you- but just seeing that amount of people just showing up for the same cause to learn and celebrate was really powerful.”
Another student shared,
“Just because, you know, being black, I know that Durham is kind of like a black city, but just being black doesn’t always make you feel, like you can see people that look like you, but you might not always feel like they’re with you, you know? Or people that don’t look like you may not always feel like they’re with you. But then seeing that amount of people just showing up for the same cause to learn, to celebrate, and just to like to have a community, it was just really nice to see and feel. That’s powerful.”
What was interesting to me as I engaged with the youth about their experience about Black August in the park was the reciprocity of engagement and identity formation. Those adults interviewed were visibly excited as youth appeared civically involved in issues relevant to the Black community. Youth felt positive energy from their elders that strengthened their sense of purpose as young black activists. A looking glass self (Erickson 1967) effect occurred as a youth dually reflected on how they thought they were going to be perceived, how they actually were perceived as a result of their actions, and ultimately the realization of their potential when engaging with their community. Another student shared a similar realization of the importance of their work,
“I got to talk to a whole bunch of people and stuff because I was doing the program and that was a lot of fun cause a lot of people really seemed interested in stuff I got to explain about. I didn’t think my questions mattered and then I felt the excitement from people I asked. I believed that what I was doing was valuable.”
The Power of Voice and Community
One cannot underestimate the effect on Black identity formation (Black Self-Concept) and feeling of community (Inclusion of community stakeholders) as a result of the positive reinforcement of Black elders through activism (Civic Engagement). I believe that these students transformed as they began to see, feel, and hear that civic engagement has the power to be liberating work. Engaging with others in their community that look like them, especially through efforts like voter registration, highlights the potential of the Black SEL framework. It shows the liberating relationship between civic engagement (doing something meaningful for the Black community) and subsequently receiving positive energy (from others) and turning it into fuel for change. The work of change also felt less isolating. Students realized the importance of building on the work of others to increase impact.
”“Community is really important to me because without inclusion of community stakeholders it’s all of us just starting from nowhere every single time. When it doesn’t necessarily have to be that. There are people who have started from nowhere and got somewhere and if we can piggyback off of them then we can get even further as a collective. So I think as a group, as a community, using and relying on the people who have made it furthest to continue to go farther, I think that that is much more important than trying to say I came from the bottom up. If you came from the bottom up you only got so far but if you come from a starting point, someone who did come from the bottom up, now you are even further in an even shorter amount of time because you’ve used the people around you.”
Black August in the Park provided a space for “important work” to become “joyful work. The meaningful intergenerational moment between the youth and elders demonstrated to the youth the importance of one’s own voice and the strength found in the voices of others (community). For the Black SEL advocates, Black August in the Park became a joyful moment and thus (even for a moment) liberatory.
Perhaps this is something we can all reflect upon and remember. Helping others in our respective communities is liberatory. The process of individual and collective liberation is joy.
