Student Voice Campaign

After a two year campaign, Young Organizer’s United (Y.O.U.) won their battle for students to have representation on the Manchester Board of School Committee. To achieve this milestone, student organizers surveyed candidates for municipal office, mobilized community support, and organized a candidate forum with 16 candidates for school committee and ten candidates for alderman. Through these efforts, students were able to place a non-binding question on the municipal ballot and asked voters, “Do you support student representation on the Board?” Once this question was secured on the ballot, Y.O.U. worked to persuade the public and engaged in door knocking, visibility action and meeting with labor unions, civic groups and faith communities. Their work was rewarded on election day when more than 74% of Manchester’s voters supported this initiative.