Youth Power: Community Organizing and the Community Safety Act

In 2012, the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) united with local organizations to form a coalition and mobilize a powerful campaign that would make their vision of community safety in Providence a reality. The coalition engaged in community organizing, a process that mobilizes everyday local people to come together, identify the issues that most affect their community, and create solutions for positive change. Their efforts culminated in the Community Safety Act (CSA), a community-authored law that banned racial profiling, eliminated the police department’s database of alleged gang members, and protected the rights of LGBTQ+, undocumented, and Southeast Asian community members. This module discusses the ways in which organizations can create community safety, and how mutual aid networks benefit these communities as well.

For five years, PrYSM youth were an integral part of the campaign and worked closely with members of the larger coalition to create social change at the community level. They met regularly to discuss their strategies and goals for the citywide campaign. Together, they identified allies who would support the law and opponents who would try to block it. They built local support for the CSA by door-knocking, phone banking, and speaking with residents about the need for police accountability and safer neighborhoods. They also organized public actions, including community marches to City Hall, where PrYSM organizer Justice Gaines reminded elected officials of their duty to serve the people:

PrYSM organizers also played a powerful role in co-authoring the multi-layered CSA. Drawing on their lived experiences, organizers provided crucial insights about safety that shaped each section of the CSA. Recalling the incident when she witnessed the police illegally profile young men and enter their names into the gang database, Linda Heng insisted that the CSA protect the rights of minors to be notified if they get in trouble with the police.

Suonriaksmay Keo remembered the police harassment that her brother endured and the strain it placed on her family.  She strongly advocated for protections against racial profiling and the elimination of the gang database. Specific sections of the CSA were added to protect youth during police interactions to prohibit Providence police from harassing youth, photographing or video recording them, and asking about their immigration status. The CSA also gave youth the right to know if they were registered in the police department’s gang database and, if so, the right to appeal. Linda, Suonriaksmay, and other PrYSM organizers demonstrate that the people most impacted by police misconduct have the best insights into creating a new vision of community safety.

Developing the CSA was not an easy process. It took the coalition three years, dozens of community strategy meetings, and more than thirty drafts to write and finalize the CSA. Each draft of the bill involved meetings with various stakeholders, including PrYSM representatives Justice Gaines and Linda Heng, their attorney, city officials, police leadership, and representatives from the mayor’s office.” ² Linda, the youngest member of the negotiation team, worked especially hard to make sure that PrYSM’s vision of community safety was accurately represented in the CSA.

Despite these challenges, Linda and Justice were inspired by how these community strategy meetings and the movement brought various community members together to fight for a shared goal. Justice states:

By deciding to continue standing together and doing the difficult work of organizing across their differences, PrYSM youth and the coalition were able to build the power and solidarity they needed to sustain the campaign. They refused to let their differences divide them and instead found power in building a collective strategy to protect their community.

During the most challenging moments of the lengthy campaign, PrYSM youth used their many talents to inspire and re-energize their community. Longtime PrYSM member Daniel Chhum explains that the distinct forms of ingenuity and creativity that PrYSM youth brought to the movement amplified the campaign’s goals and messages while also helping PrYSM youth discover how to use their imagination for a shared purpose:

PrYSM youth showed Providence that “youth creativity is youth power.” ⁵ They used their imagination to put their own spin on common activism tactics, like direct action and demonstrated the power of bringing authenticity, creativity, and joy to their work in order to sustain a multi-year campaign and carry out their visions.

The love and care with which PrYSM youth led the CSA movement had lasting impacts on the organizers, who, according to PrYSM executive director Vanessa Flores-Maldonado, “really learned the power that an individual has when they are so connected into their community and listening to their community and working alongside the community.” ⁶ As PrYSM youth struggled with confronting the power that police held over their sense of safety and dignity, they simultaneously regained their own sense of power by being in community with others across the city. In community, the youth transformed disempowerment and disrespect into a movement for abolition.