Santana Kavanaugh presents her Liberation Academy project on advocating for students of color at NYU
This year, American Friends Service Committee's NY Healing Justice program hosted its fourth cohort of Liberation Academy students in NYC. Held from February 24th through June 6th, Liberation Academy taught young people from the ages of 18 to 25 community organizing skills and culminated in hands-on community learning projects chosen by the participants. For Liberation Academy 2025, we had five participants do projects on a range of interests and issues.
One project acknowledged survivors of violence with an arts and wellness night at the AFSC offices in Manhattan. Survivors were given resources along with self-care tools and items for stress relief and relaxation. In a two-hour workshop, this participant based their workshop on some of the foundations learned from Day One’s Early Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (ERAPP) program about warning signs of abuse and violence in relationships. The event was successful and provided participants with the tools to combat abuse and watch for warning signs ahead of time.
Koudjedji Koulibaly presents her project during Liberation Academy graduation
Johanni Valerio's presentation focused on NYC’s queer youth
Jamey Battle presents her project on immigrant rights
Another student hosted an open forum at AFSC offices for students from her campus to begin thinking through the issues they face from administration concerning racism and and how to support each other, especially considering the recent threats to higher education and student organizing. This conversation served as a starting point for Black and brown students at NYU to organize against racism.
Another participant hosted a discussion at Idealist headquarters of the book Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America’s Classrooms by Tyrone Howard, opening a conversation for educators and students alike to bridge achievement gaps for young people of color. She chose this topic in response to the cuts facing Department of Education amid Trump’s reelection. This reading group read together the introduction and first chapter, which focuses on the data about the large gap in achievement for students of color versus white students. This reading sparked a conversation about the need to develop a multicultural model of education that considers students of color and that allows both students of color and white students to thrive as peers.
Another participant has been disseminating information shared with her that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is now sharing data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She received word from a friend at the Department that they would begin sharing this data. In response to this, she called up journalists she knew and asked them to break the story. She has started a media and canvassing campaign to warn her undocumented neighbors that their information may be compromised.
She is also working on a project which documents the lived experiences of first-generation Americans to highlight contributions of immigrant groups, and hopes to further positive narratives about people who choose to migrate in light of changes being made to the U.S. immigration system.
The final presentation focused on the lives of queer women of color in New York City, as part of a three-year interview project. She has created an archival website for compiling resources for young people in NYC to get help with concerns around acceptance, housing, and more. Her database can be found here.
She plans to continue working with the Audre Lorde foundation to continue her archival and database work.
Liberation Academy Graduation
This year's graduation took place at AFSC’s NYC offices on June 6th and included four in-person presentations and one presentation via Zoom. Each participant shared reflections on their experience with Liberation Academy and the outcomes of their action projects, offering highlights and considering improvements if they chose to continue working on the project or issue. Graduates celebrated with swag bags, stipends, and certificates, and took part in a feedback session on how to improve the academy for the next group of young organizers.