A Visit to a High School Justice Club Inspires Teens and MSC Staffers Alike
Earlier this year, we received an email from the Wilcox High School Justice Club. Dedicated to social justice, movement building, and transformative change, the club connected with us in order to learn more about collaborative activism and creating and sustaining movements. Wilcox is located in Santa Clara, Calif., a little over an hour south of our homebase in Oakland, and club members wondered if anyone on staff here at Movement Strategy Center (MSC) might be interested in coming out and speaking to the group about social and climate justice, community leadership, and Transformative Movement Building.
Say no more, fam! Daniel Parada, Director of Fiscal Sponsorship, and Christine Juang, Projects & Partnerships Steward, happily agreed to speak to the students. The decision to share the Practices of Transformative Movement Building was natural — it’s the cornerstone to so much of MSC’s work. The overview included the four pillars of Transformative Movement Building: Audacious Vision, Deep Embodiment, and Radical Connection as a foundation for Strategic Navigation. The pillars offer alternative and expansive ways of viewing justice and building community, which seemed especially relevant to the club’s mission of engaging those interested in social justice and the law.
The student-run club is guided by professionals including judges, lawyers, community service officers, and, in the case of our visit, core staff members at a movement support nonprofit. Parada and Juang started the discussion by asking the teens, “what words or images come to mind when you think of the word justice?” They connected the students’ responses to the various services and programs that MSC and our myriad partners perform throughout the ecosystem — letting students in on the many ways our work, and all work, can be done through a lens of justice.
“Justice can be found almost anywhere, everywhere in the world.”
Club members asked questions about justice, inclusivity, and ways to get involved in the community and connected to MSC’s ecosystem. One student, who said their involvement with Justice Club stemmed from their interest in pursuing a law career, shared, “Little did I know, ‘justice’ wasn’t confined just to becoming a lawyer … Justice can be found almost anywhere, everywhere in the world.”
That same student said their main takeaway is that everyone has the ability and autonomy to “take action in our community for the issues we care about.” They wanted to hear more from organizations like MSC “who have done tremendous work on these social justice issues,” and suspected other club members would, too.
It was an inspiring day in Santa Clara, and isn’t that exactly what we all need right now?
