{"id":10287,"date":"2015-10-05t01:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-05t05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/advocates-blog\/advocates-blog-advocates-blog\/thanks-for-an-amazing-urban-retreat\/"},"modified":"2019-09-16t17:05:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16t21:05:36","slug":"thanks-for-an-amazing-urban-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.k12fl.com\/世界杯2022亚洲预选赛b组 \/thanks-for-an-amazing-urban-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"thanks for an amazing urban retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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working with advocates has absolutely changed my life. they’ve helped me do the work that i love, they’ve sent me to conferences, and have hooked me up with incredible people who are constantly working to lift me and each other up.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

patty, young women of color leadership council<\/span><\/p>\n

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because of supporters like you, the 16th<\/sup> annual urban retreat: youth activist institute was a resounding success! we were able to bring 120 young people from 30 states and five countries to the retreat this year. two groups, the young women of leadership council and youth resource (our lgbtq activists) even came a day early to work on their advocacy campaigns! <\/span>youth speakers included omarr–the son of conservative black pastors–who after confronting his own \u201cisms\u201d at last year\u2019s urban retreat began a year-long advocacy campaign and successfully won improvements to the sex education policy in his rural mississippi school district; to patty who fought back when she was censored by facebook <\/a>for sharing sexual health content on her group\u2019s page; to dalia who at just 16 years old eloquently shared how each and every day she navigates the intersection of her identifies as young, queer and black.<\/p>\n

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during the five day retreat, youth attended workshops and plenary sessions to build their skills as   activists and leaders, hone their stories of self, create community, and ultimately develop action plans to help them advocate for youth sexual health and rights in the year to come.<\/p>\n

developing your story, that\u2019s really what this whole thing\u2019s about [working with advocates], because our stories are so important….there\u2019s power in every story, and every story has the power to change laws.<\/i><\/b>         
      <\/span><\/i>-justin, mississippi cami <\/span><\/p>\n

on monday, the young people donned their best outfits and headed out for capitol hill. staff coordinated 93 meetings and prepared activists to use their own stories and experiences to educate elected officials about the real education for healthy youth act (rehya) and the international human rights defense act (ihrda).<\/p>\n

 we lobby to show politicians and decision makers they cannot use our bodies as bargaining chips.<\/i>       <\/b>
-tweet gran varones #urbanretreat15<\/p>\n

even before coming to the urban retreat, young people prepared for these meetings by collecting signatures in support of rehya to deliver during lobby day.<\/p>\n

the more signatures i collected, i heard tons of stories about horrible experiences in sex ed classes which pushed me to keep collecting. i put the petition on the counter at the coffee shop where i work and while i made smoothies i told people about the cause, i also went door to door in the dorm buildings for hours asking people for their support. supporting rehya is, i feel, a pinnacle to our experiences in 喀麦隆vs巴西波胆分析 . this petition is the first step to showing legislators that we will not be silent about this issue, we will continue having the conversation until we no longer need to have it!<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 –<\/span>madison chickos, ohio cami<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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and decision makers were listening. as a direct result of this year\u2019s lobby day:<\/p>\n