Youth + Families
About Us & Our Work
Welcome to the Youth & Family Page of SURJ SF! We work to promote racial justice in areas that directly or indirectly affect our city’s youth & families by engaging parents and children in anti-racist work through a family-friendly lens.
We work in solidarity with BIPOC families, students, and educators, including organizing family-friendly direct actions. We support families, educators, and youth workers in having conversations with children about race, racism, police violence, displacement, and white supremacy.
We work through interactive educational workshops, play, anti-racist storytimes, and teach-ins.
Current & Past Projects & Actions
Some of our recent focuses include:
Promoting and supporting racial justice efforts in SFUSD —We hosted meetings with community members from schools on the school renaming list to share strategies and information. We collaborate with the Vote No School Board Recall campaign.
Series of Play Date Protests in Conjunction with Bay Area Family Solidarity Network—In order to bring attention to the way that immigration and the environment crisis affect kids in profound ways, we interrupted business as usual by setting up kids’ spaces with activities, music, and story imes in front of and inside strategic spaces such as the Federal Building, banks like Wells Fargo & Bank of America, the ICE building, Sheriffs’ offices, and more.
Advocating for Removal of Life of Washington Mural from George Washington High School—Members of our working group worked to amplify the call to remove the racist mural. We showed up to school board meetings to comment, support Indigenous organizers, and help with childcare.
Racial Justice Storytime—The committee organized Saturday afternoon gatherings once a month around various justice themes. We invited a guest speaker and chose children’s books focusing on the theme.
How to Talk to Kids about Race Sessions (in Collaboration with the SF Public Library, Teachers 4 Social Justice, Our Family Coalition, Abundant Beginnings & Other Groups)—We helped organize mini-conferences, including a panel, break out affinity groups, and childcare provided by Abundant Beginnings and the Bay Area Child Care Collective.
Youth-Focused Teach-Ins Before MLK Day March—In conjunction with Young People for Black Lives Coalition & Abundant Beginnings, the committee organized teach-ins for children before the march and helped with security during the children’s march.
Support of Youth Organized Climate March—Members of the committee set up a kids space in front of the Amazon store on Market Street, so that kids would have a place to be during the march.
Interested in organizing with Youth + Families? Please fill out this form, or email SURJSF@gmail.com.