MEDIA RELEASE: Youth-Led OPSB Candidate Forum - TUESDAY, OCT. 30th @ 5:30PM
Minh Nguyen
Media Release
For Release on October 25, 2012
Contact: Jacob Cohen (jacob...@vayla-no.org; 415-577-1590)
One Week Before Election, Impacted Students to Question 11 Orleans Parish School Board Candidates on Education Equity Issues
The Largest Youth-Led Candidate Forum Since Hurricane Katrina will Shift the Discourse, Placing Student Voices at the Center
What: The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, in partnership with Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools and Orleans Public Education Network, will be mobilizing students and families from all across city to engage school board candidates on the issues that passionately concern them. A candidate forum of this scale, placing student voices at the center of the discussion, has not taken place in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. From food access, discipline policies, and transportation, to charter governance, school closures, and counseling services, student leaders will share testimony and ask the candidates to lay our their plans for addressing systemic barriers to achievement, democratic participation, and equity.
When: Tuesday, October 30th at 5:30 pm
Where: Ashe Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113
Who: The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Orleans Public Education Network, Fyre Youth Squad, Young Adults Striving for Success, Puentes New Orleans, and students from McMain Secondary, Warren Easton, Benjamin Franklin, and Sarah T. Reed.
Why: Past candidate forums and events have not heavily featured student voices or perspectives, despite the fact that students are the stakeholder group with the greatest first-hand experience of present schooling conditions and the most at stake in the school board election.
Media Visuals: Students speaking at a lectern to present issues and questions; students moderating the event; students submitting comment cards; a room with 100-150 community members and youth from all over the city representing over a dozen organizations and schools.
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The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) is a youth-led community-based organization that empowers Vietnamese American and underrepresented youth through supportive services and organizing for cultural enrichment and positive social change.
Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink) is a youth leadership and civic engagement organization that supports young people as they “rethink” the public school experience and push for school-specific as well as systemic change. The idea is simple: students are experts on their school experiences and deserve a voice in education reform.
Orleans Parish Education Network (OPEN) is a New Orleans-based nonprofit committed to ensuring that there is an informed and engaged community that exercises influence on policy and programs to realize excellence and equity for every child in public schools in New Orleans.
Minh Thanh Nguyen
Executive Director, Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans
Fellow, 2012 New Leaders Council Institute
Board Member, Asian Pacific American Society of New Orleans
Board Member, JACL - New Orleans Chapter
Board Member, EngageNOLA
4646 Michoud Blvd. Suite D2
New Orleans, LA 70129-1816
minhn...@vayla-no.org | www.vayla-no.org
Office: 504-253-6000
Fax: 504-754-7762
Cell: 504-931-5878
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