Youth Pathways

A program that supports educators and 7-12th grade students in navigating conversations about racism and systemic anti-Black violence.

Program Overview: Through a carefully curated Professional Development series and Education Guide, CCCADI’s Youth Pathways program prepares and utilizes educators to provide 7-12th graders in New York City with a safe place for conversations about race, racism and anti-Black violence. Central to the program is the Education Guide which provides an outline for intentional exploration of On Protest and Mourning, a CCCADI digital exhibition featuring photographers and filmmakers who have recorded and borne witness to the nation’s uprisings and simultaneous insistence that the lives taken prematurely at the hands of police are mourned in public space.

Youth Pathways Objectives:

  • Support youth autonomy in navigating and contributing to conversations about race, racism and anti-Black violence

  • Develop future leaders in social justice and cultural equity

  • Create bridges between art, culture, & social justice 

Who Can Participate:

Educators serving students in 7-12th grades in New York City. Traditional educators interested in bringing this program to their classrooms, as well as non-traditional educators serving youth outside of the classroom are welcome to sign-up.  

How to Participate: 

There are two ways educators can participate in our Youth Pathways program. They can sign up to have a trained teaching artist implement the On Protest and Mourning Education Guide’s curriculum for their students or sign up to be trained in implementing the curriculum. The curriculum requires approxiately 14 hours to implement. 

  • REQUEST HERE

    Teaching Artists are limited. Please sign up by April 11, 2022, if you are interested in requesting a TA to facilitate this program with your students from May - June 2022.

  • REGISTER HERE

    If you are interested in receiving the professional development training and education guide, please sign up by April 11, 2022. Space is limited. Training will take place April 25 - May 15, 2022.

What is the Educator Professional Development Training?

This series, led by Momentum Education will prepare educators to implement the CCCADI On Protest & Mourning Education Guide. This series is composed of seven sessions, each approximately 45 minutes to one-hour long. 

  • Session 1: Pre-assessment and pre-work 

  • Session 2: Race/Racism 

  • Session 3: Implicit Bias/Microaggressions 

  • Session 4: Equality and Equity 

  • Session 5: Dealing with Big Emotions 

  • Session 6: Self-Care 

  • Session 7: Pre-recorded Program Overview 

About the Education Guide’s Curriculum: In response to the mass uprisings and national mourning of Black lives lost at the hands of the police in the Spring of 2020, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute launched a virtual exhibition entitled On Protest and Mourning. 

As part of the exhibition’s goal of bringing to light society’s need to dismantle systemic racism and injustices, the On Protest & Mourning Education Guide was created. This guide serves as a resource for educators as they plan their virtual class visit to the exhibition. It offers an exhibition overview, lesson plans, and exhibit-viewing activities to assist educators and their students in exploring the exhibition’s key concepts. 

The On Protest and Mourning Education Guide will prepare educators on how to talk to students about race and anti-Black violence. It will include pre-visit lesson plans intended to prepare students and educators to view the exhibit through the facilitation of safe and authentic conversations about race, racism and anti-Black violence. Educators will explore with their students the definitions and impact of race and racism, the history of anti-Black violence, the origins of police brutality, youth protest movements, the definitions of grief and mourning and the intersection of protest and mourning. 

The guide will offer educators an outline for collective exploration of the exhibition that will connect to present-day examples of anti-Black violence in the United States. Students will be asked to reflect on the impact of the art and its representation of protest and mourning in the Black community. As a conclusion to the curriculum, the On Protest and Mourning Education Guide offers additional resources for both educators and students to support continued conversations about systemic racism and anti-Black violence. 

Student Opportunity: Upon completion of the On Protest & Mourning Education Guide curriculum, students in grades 9-12 will have the opportunity to apply for CCCADI’s four-week Cultural Producer Summer Camp.

The Cultural Producer Summer Camp will allow student participants to work closely with social justice professionals to create their own project grounded in what they learned during the On Protest & Mourning exhibition. 

At the end of the Cultural Producer Summer Camp there will be a public presentation of the project and each student will receive a $750.00 honorarium. 

Information regarding applications and eligibility will be shared with those educators actively participating in the Youth Pathways program in May.