Nikkita's Visit to our YYA Advocacy Program

In the CHOOSE 180 Youth and Young Adult Advocacy Program, we have a goal to connect our young people (aka Community Experts) with as many community leaders and advocates that align with their vision as possible. 

In the month of March, Nikkita Oliver visited our young Community Experts to help them understand the abolition movement. However, Nikkita left our young people with so much more. Not only were our young people able to speak about their understanding of the abolition movement as it relates to prisons and laborers, but they were also able to understand the goals of the “defund movement” and “reform movement.” This allowed our young people to foster new ideas around the changes that they have the ability to make and advocate for in their communities—with an outlook that is rooted in being transformative and restorative in practice. 

During an engaging discussion with the group, Nikkita shared a lesson, “We have to be actively building while we’re dismantling.” We need to invest in community-based, restorative systems while actively defunding and disrupting oppressive systems at the same time.

When asked what the young Community Experts in the space thought about the session, they shared their thoughts:

Savien: “I felt like the session was very much packed with information. And, it taught me about systems that have been abolished and how we as experts can change and invent new systems in place of oppressive ones.”

Kaku: It was great that Nikkita allowed us to define the movements before the session started. Then, they were able to provide additional expertise around the popular movements going on Defund, Reform and Abolition. 

Faduma: The Jamboard activity where young people put down different changes in the community that they wanted to see was helpful. Nikkita provided the young people with information around how to dismantle an oppressive system through exercises and free sharing. 

Kaleah: I learned a lot from this session.

Nikkita Oliver shared these videos for anyone who wants to learn more: Defunding vs. Abolishing and A Message from the Future.