The first discussed organization is the Happy Hippie Foundation established by a singer, performer and actress Miley Cyrus. The organization’s official website page can be found at the following address: http://www.happyhippies.org/. It is a non-profit organization that operates on a national level. The stated mission of the organization is to “rally young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable populations” (“The Happy Hippie Foundation,” 2014). The foundation speaks out against judgement of young people, who differ from the majority of population on the basis of their sexuality, sexual preferences, social status and other characteristics. Its aim is to help homeless youth get education, job and home, as well as to provide social support. It also aims at prevention of homelessness among youth by raising awareness about the issue of children being forced into the streets because of being too old for foster care. It also attempts to transform the society’s views on sexuality and sexual identity.
The foundation carries out both case and systemic advocacies, although the primary focus is on the latter. In particular, it constantly presents numerous programs to raise funds for organizations that provide help to disadvantaged and at-risk youth (“The Happy Hippie Foundation,” 2014). Such programs are aimed at making systemic changes through campaigns that raise awareness. However, the organization is also involved in case advocacy, since many of its fundraising and awareness campaigns have helped specific people to find jobs, get education and find homes. In particular, the organization has programs focused on the prevention of particular crises by helping a person financially in order to satisfy his or her basic needs (“The Happy Hippie Foundation,” 2014). The organization also carries out both proactive and reactive advocacy, with the latter being more important one. In particular, the foundation primarily focuses on making changes in current practice of how youth is treated. It attempts to change how homeless children and LGBT-youth are viewed and, this way, to change their future. However, the foundation also carries out proactive advocacy by creating numerous new support services and “resources for gender-expansive youth and their parents” (“The Happy Hippie Foundation,” 2014).
The projects of this foundation can be put on the eighth rung of Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation. A project on this level is initiated by children and youth, but the decision-making process is shared with adults. Indeed, the entire project was initiated by Miley Cyrus, who was only 22. Currently, the programs within the foundation are curated by adults, but involve active participation of children and youth from all over the world. For example, recently a 16-year-old boy named Brendan Jordan collaborated with the foundation and Miley Cyrus to launch an Instagram campaign that would increase awareness about gender identification and “the importance of safety, love, and awareness” (Jordan, 2015). This is only one of numerous examples of how foundation accepts youth initiatives and agrees to participate in them, sharing the responsibility and decision-making with children and young people.
The foundation does not focus on one certain type of discrimination, but instead admits that the problem of youth homelessness is rooted in different types of discrimination. For this reason, it provides help to children and youth, who are disadvantaged because of their low social status, who experience judgement and discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender identity and family background, with many children coming from foster homes. Another program is aimed to help to LGBT youth living with HIV. Although the organization does not provide a full list of issues within its focus, it claims to provide support to “other vulnerable populations” (“The Happy Hippie Foundation,” 2014). For this reason, it is impossible to conclude how exactly the company works with intersectionality.
The Happy Hippie Foundation encourages children and youth coming from different backgrounds and having different issues to participate in the activities of the organization. The organization invites youth to participate in various campaigns through social media, as well as organizes events, where children and youth are able to discuss vital problems and the ways to solve them. Moreover, the organization is open to cooperation with individuals on the projects developed by such individuals, with Brandon Jordan being only one of many similar examples. Children and youth are also able to share their stories with everyone through the foundation by submitting their messages to the website of the organization, with some of such stories being later published. At the same time, the foundation organizes fundraising events, where children and youth can raise awareness with the community by sharing their stories. These methods are a great way to give voice to this age group.
The second reviewed organization is Alliance for Children’s Rights that was established in 1992, is based in Los Angeles County and operates in California (“Mission and vision,” n.d.). Its website can be found at the following address: http://kids-alliance.org/. According to the organization’s website, it aims at protecting “the rights of impoverished, abused and neglected children and youth”, and it does so by providing free legal services and advocacy, with its efforts being aimed, inter alia, at systemic reforms (“Mission and vision,” n.d.). The alliance helps children build a better future by assisting with adoption process, finding homes, training and education opportunities, as well as adequate medical help (“Mission and vision,” n.d.).
The alliance carries out both case and systemic advocacy. The first one is very strong in the organization that offers pro bono legal services to all children, who need them, since such children do not have parents, who could afford such legal services. Such legal services are usually provided to help children become adopted and obtain a legal guardian, as well as get access to healthcare and education (“Mission and vision,” n.d.). The statistics of the company says it all: 125,000 children have received free legal help on a case basis since 1992 (“Mission and vision,” n.d.). At the same time, the alliance adopted strategies of systemic advocacy, too. In particular, the organization aims at reforming current policies regarding expedition of adoptions, securing medical coverage and treatment for children, the provision of education for children, who have problems with behavior or have learning disabilities, as well as assistance in helping children become self-reliant (“Mission and vision,” n.d.). The organization has the Alliance Policy Division that is based in San Francisco and was established specifically to advocate for systemic reforms (“System-wide reform,” n.d.). It does so by tracking repeated practices that prevent clients from achieving their goals, including adoption, and take such cases to the courts with the aim of changing legislation that has created such barriers in the first place. The alliance also carries out reactive and proactive advocacy. The first has already been mentioned earlier, when talking about the organization taking cases to courts in order to stop malpractices and change policies. It makes constant attempts to overcome bureaucracies in medicine, courts, schools and official institutions by providing legal help in cases when children have already faced barriers (“Mission and vision,” n.d.).The alliance also works on legislation advocacy, supporting, among others, such initiative as the unified process of approving foster families, also known as Resource Family Approval (“Legislation,” n.d.). This is a vivid example of how the alliance turns to proactive advocacy to promote the adoption and implementation of improved legislation.
The alliance can be put on the sixth rung of Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation, since its projects are initiated by adults, but children are able to make important decisions. For example, children, who are no longer in foster care or delinquency system, are offered by adults to participate in the Alliance’s NextStep Program that offers youth of age 14-24 pro bono consultations and a variety of legal services depending on the issue the person has (“NextStep,” n.d.). The organization suggests each young person to make a decision on whether to contact the organization for help and whether to accept the provided services, so such young person will have a choice.
While working with children from foster care and delinquency systems in general, the organization has several initiatives that focus on children belonging to specific groups. The first group is children with learning disabilities and behavioral issues, who need help to enroll in special schools, where their educational needs can be met. The second group is American Indian foster children, and the alliance cooperates with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the American Indian and Alaskan Native community to help these children (“Partnership Focuses,” 2015). The alliance also has a special unit in charge of help to children, who became victims to sex trafficking. It also ensures that children can opt to live with their relatives before considering other options. Thus, the organization successfully works with intersectionality, although it does not have special programs for children suffering from discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, the alliance does not provide much opportunity for children and youth to participate in the organization’s activities, with several events, such as Transition-Age Youth Thanksgiving and Survival Saturday being the only ones, where youth is actually involved. All other events gather adults for fundraising. Although there are the NextStep program, Los Angeles Opportunity Youth Collaborative, Foster Youth Education Toolkit and Know Before You Go Smart Phone App that are created specifically for youth, these tools make children and young people merely the recipients of services, instead of equal participants of the process.
The Happy Hippie Foundation provides great resources that can be used in my practice. In particular, it shows up as an organization that invites children and youth to directly participate in its activities and improve the well-being of fellow young people through actively taking steps to improve the situation. This organization uses a variety of social platforms to engage youth and adults in the dialogue about how to raise awareness of oppression and inequality and how to help youth in need. The organization has great potential, since it does not silence children’s voices with adults’ decisions, but actually asks for children’s and youth’s opinion, as well as gives them opportunity to decide what projects to start and how to fund them.
References
Jordan, B. (2015, November 20). Special blog post: Brendan. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.happyhippies.org/blog/special-blog-post-brendan
Legislation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://kids-alliance.org/legislation/
Mission and vision. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://kids-alliance.org/what-we-do/
NextStep. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://kids-alliance.org/programs/nextstep/
Partnership Focuses on American Indian Foster Children. (2015, January 23). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://kids-alliance.org/galleries/partnership-focuses-on-american-indian-foster-children/
System-wide reform. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://kids-alliance.org/programs/system-wide-reform/
The Happy Hippie Foundation. (2014). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.happyhippies.org/
