Youth Organizing  

Recognizing the value and critical role of young people in social movements, Pueblo formed as a collective effort to provide a space for young people to meaningfully participate and become engaged in their community. In 2005 high school students took the initiative to walk-out of their schools in protest of HR 4437 and the growing anti-immigrant sentiment. These actions of resistance spread across the Phoenix area and new leadership quickly sprang to the forefront. Unfortunately, their energy was not sufficiently encouraged and supported. The energy and excitement remains within the young people, and Pueblo seeks to provide a space in which young people can come together to discuss and analyze their experiences. 

Weekly Seminars  


In addition to the organizing institute PUEBLO offers weekly seminars on the above explained topics or on other current issues in the local, national, or international media. These seminars are open to high school and college aged young people who are members, or considering becoming members, of PUEBLO.

Organizing Institute

If a 17 year-old student wants to learn how to work with members of their community to create change, where do they go? If someone’s relative is deported, their mother or father is unjustly treated at work, or if they experience racism and discrimination on a daily basis, how does a young person channel this anger and frustration into energy for positive social change?

Pueblo provides an opportunity for students a year to go through an intensive training program on how to be an organizer. Outreach is done at protests and rallies where the more vocal students are personally asked to submit applications to be a part of the organizing institute. Additionally, applications are distributed through high school teachers and counselors, leafleting at high school campuses, and on-line. From this pool of applicants, 12-15 students are selected to be a part of the four-month training program.

The program begins with a retreat to the mountainous area of Heber, Arizona, where students work on building trust and learning the basics of what it means to be an organizer. The intensive weekend of seminars is followed by participants returning to Phoenix to meet for four hours a week for the following two and a half months.

The final six weeks of the training is spent working with mentor organizers on a campaign that is going on in the Phoenix community.

The Curriculum: The following seminars are available during the three-month period to participants in the organizing institute. While a few of the seminars are pre-determined by staff and conducted during the weekend retreat, on the final day of the retreat, participants jointly decide on which seminars they would like to have for the remaining period of the institute. If participants decide there is a different area they would like to focus on then staff works with both the participants and community members to develop new seminars. While many of the seminars are given by Pueblo staff, a large part of seminars are also given/facilitated by individuals locally and across the country.


• Organizing 101: What is organizing and how does one go about working with community members to create change? This seminar includes an overview of the basics of organizing and provides examples of victories won through organizing. Participants also learn how organizing can lead to long-term change in our communities.
• Organizing 102: This seminar covers how to engage in one-on-one conversations when working on a campaign. Through role playing and reflection, participants will learn proven techniques used to engage others in campaigns for social justice.
• Organizing 103: Participants will learn how to turn and idea/dream into a full-on campaign. Organizers will reflect on campaigns they have been involved in and share with participants their lessons learned. Additional topics covered in this seminar include: how to choose a target, SWOT, developing next steps, and creating a timeline.
• Organizing 104: After your campaign has been developed, how do you implement it? This seminar goes over the importance of paying attention to the small details, including; making lists, outreach, achieving your metrics, and volunteer appreciation.
• Organizing 105: This session focuses on how to facilitate a successful meeting, public speaking, and dealing with the media. By analyzing a mock meeting and interview with the media participants learn the do’s and don’t of facilitation and public speaking.
• The Minutemen and the Militarization of the Border: This seminar covers the recent change in the U.S.-Mexico border, specifically focusing on the state of Arizona. Through personal stories told by those who followed the Minutemen in the desert and who have lived along the U.S.-Mexico border, participants learn about the human rights tragedy occurring on the border through a combination of story telling and video.
• The Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in Arizona and the Manifestation of Racism? Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not the first local official to engage in racist behavior. This seminar provides the context as to why people now refer to Arizona as the Alabama of the Civil Rights Movement. Participants learn about anti-immigrant ballot initiatives, local ordinances, the state legislature, and the vigilantes. This hour-long overview is a must for anyone wanting to understand the current anti-immigrant sentiment in Arizona.
• How the Immigration System Works, I Mean Doesn’t Work: By examining the current U.S. Immigration system, participants will learn how to our current policies are racists and classist. This discussion will also focus on the human right to migrate and the neo-liberal economic policies that force individuals to migrate.
• Enjoying Life: As Thoreau once said, “I am in this world not principally to change it, but to enjoy it.” This seminar focuses on how to maintain balance in your life, appreciating the many dimensions of nature and the self, from prioritizing time with loved ones, to understanding the importance of exercise and avoiding burn-out.
• Understanding and Destroying Oppression: This seminar examines power in our society: who has the power and who does not? Through interactive exercises participants break down and understand economic inequality, racism, sexism, and homophobia.
• Civil Disobedience and Social Movements: An overview of Thoureau, Gandhi, the underground railroad, sit-in’ners, and freedom riders provides the foundation for the discussion of what to do when a society is strapped with an unjust law. Through these historical examples participants will have a better understanding of how civil disobedience has led to social change.
• Young People and Resistance: This seminar connects the present to historical struggles. An examination of past movements – the Young Lords Party, the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party, Weatherman Underground and the student walk-outs in Los Angeles– shed light on periods of resistance largely initiated by young people.
• What is Education?: This seminar analyzes the current educational system in the United States and explains how the current structure is set-up to control and pacify individuals to the dominance of the state. Further topics covered in this seminar include; the school-to-prison pipeline and an introduction to Paolo Freire and the concept of critical pedagogy.
• Art and Revolution: This seminar analyzes the use of art in social justice. Participants learn of murals, poetry, and photography used in past movements. There is also an analysis of the banners, posters, and flyers of the current immigrants’ rights movement to seek a better understanding of what messages we are delivering and how anyone with a poster and marker is an artist.
• Using Technology: How do we use technology instead of having technology control us? Participants learn the basics in using text messaging, facebook, and myspace in organizing. There is also discussion on e-mail list building, mass emailing, writing effective emails, and website development.
• What is Globalization? In this seminar, participants will have the opportunity to understand globalization as it pertains to people of color living in the United States. We cover structural adjustment in the “Third World” through an interactive exercise. An overview of international entities such as the World Bank, WTO, and IMF is given through an engaging video.
• Human Rights and Civil Liberties: This seminar explores the concepts of “rights” and “liberties.” Are we fighting for rights or for liberation? This interactive seminar uses the current global migration phenomenon (though specifically focusing on Arizona) to answer the question, “But what are we really fighting for?”
• Federal and State Legislation Related to Immigration: An overview of the current federal legislation including the DREAM Act, McCain-Kennedy, Real ID, and Secure Fence Act is followed by an in-depth analysis of the current anti-immigrant measures in front of the Arizona State Legislature and those set to be up for a vote on the next ballot.
• Racism in the U.S. and Mexico: This seminar talks about racism as it affects young people of color on three levels: institutional oppression, interpersonal oppression and internalized oppression. A brief historical look on racism in the United States and Mexico is also provided to provide a context for the larger discussion.
• Sisters and the System of Sexism: This seminar uses participants’ experiences and statistics to understand what women face in our sexist society. The seminar also includes a look at women’s resistance to sexism and how we can continue this legacy.
• Homophobia: What It’s All About This is an introductory seminar that covers the basics of homophobia, starting with definitions and exploring misconceptions and stereotypes. Participants will use personal experiences to understand the effects of homophobia on the daily lives of GLBTQ people.
• Understanding Disability Oppression: This is an introductory seminar that examines the system of disability oppression in our society. Through definitions, brainstorm, and scenarios, participants will understand what disability oppression looks like and how we can fight it.
• So Many Complexes: Understanding the Military, Prison, and Border Industrial Complexes: Participants learn how the U.S. Government is currently on a mass spending spree in an effort to use physical force to control the globe and our own population. An overview of the defense budget and the growing spending on prisons and militarizing the border provides a context to understand where (and to whom) are tax dollars go.
• Using Video to Document Abuses and Create Change: From how to turn on a camera to the use of external audio and how to not make your viewer dizzy from continuously zooming in and out, this seminar provides a hands on experience of how to use your camcorder as a weapon for social justice. The second-half of this seminar included the basics in editing and how to use Youtube and other online outlets.
• Learning From Film: Race, Class, and Gender Portrayed in Film: This seminar analyzes film to show how race, class, and gender are portrayed in the media. Through an scenes from different movies, participants use their life experience to analyze how the media is responsible for reproducing oppression in our society.
• Workers’ Rights and Union Organizing in Arizona: This seminar is facilitated by local union organizers and gives an explanation of unions in Arizona as well as the campaigns they are currently working on. Union organizers provide an overview of what life is like as a union organizer and also provide a brief history on unions in Arizona.
• History of the Chicano Movement: By combining film and story telling, facilitators describe parts of history excluded in high school classes. This seminar covers incidents such as the Zoot Suit Riots to the Walk-Outs in Los Angeles.
• Rhetoric, Messaging, and Communication: Why Words Matter: Ever see a sign at a march and wonder what that message is communicating? This seminar analyzes the messaging used in the current immigrants rights’ movement and asks the question, “Why are we trying to convince people we are not terrorists or criminals?”
• NAFTA, Neo-Liberal Economic Policies and their Effect on the Mexican Economy: The North American Free Trade Agreement has devastated the Mexican economy and led to an increase in migration. What exactly is NAFTA and how has it impacted the daily lives of working people on both sides of the border? This informative seminar is a foundation for understanding the root causes of migration.
• Foundational Perspectives: This four-part seminar explores power, race, class, gender, and nationality.
•  Core Values of Cesar Chavez: This seminar uses an approved curriculum from the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation to explain the core values of one of the greatest civil rights and labor leaders of all time.

At the end of the three-month training, PUEBLO makes its best effort to continue to work with the young people or provide them placement with local organizations and educational institutions. Additionally, many of the participants will graduate into PUEBLO’s Organizer’s Collective. Organizers will be able to attend a national training the trainers program to then come back to their community and provide the above seminars, or others of their choosing, to local community members.