Hi. It's Brady.

Have you heard that I'm the new Executive Director of JYCA!?! Celebrate with me by helping me achieve my goal of welcoming in 50 new donors.

If you don't know about JYCA, here's the nutshell version:

JYCA (Jewish Youth for Community Action) is a program created and led by youth to work towards progressive social change. We seek to educate, empower and inspire political, social, environmental and cultural awareness and action in young activists, guided by Jewish values of social justice. We educate, empower and inspire young activists by building a community based on trust, respect and cooperative process. In this safe environment we are able to use Jewish perspectives to examine ourselves and the world, inspiring greater political, social, environmental and cultural awareness and action.

For me this work is incredibly personal. In my life I've spent a lot of energy into getting people to reconnect with their "inner child." I always believed that our inner youthful wisdom can see through all the arbitrary rules and obstacles that keep us from being our best and most authentic selves. When we were youth we unknowingly faced huge amounts of Adultism; the oppression of young people by older people based on the assumption that adults are more fully human than young people, and often presented when youth are ignored, silenced, neglected or punished because they are not adults . It is through this form of oppression that many of us began to conform and limit our capacity for love and our understanding of what is possible. It is also a way that many youth are introduced and assimilated into the oppressive systems of racism, patriarchy, ableism, etc. that as adults we struggle so much to unlearn and divest from.

What if this generation of youth didn't have to face Adultism? What if they had a place where the dreams and convictions of the youth were fostered and valued as much, if not more than adult experience and "wisdom?" What if youth, given the tools, led each other towards a higher understanding of the challenges of our times? What if the youth decided what was possible and led us towards their vision of a liberated world?  It's these questions that led me to apply to be the Executive Director of JYCA and it's these questions that has had me waking up feeling more fulfilled and excited than I have in a long time.

Thank you so much for helping me reach my goal of 50 new donors!

Your support will tell youth that they DO matter. Your support will empower youth to take action, start organizing, and make a difference in the world.