WHAT IS SLP?
It’s civics. It’s community action. It’s an opportunity for young people to make their voices heard on the social issues that concern them most.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
SLP projects are entirely youth-led. An SLP Faculty or partner staff member facilitates the project but students decide the issue they want to help solve, how to become experts on it, the best way to fix it, and how to most effectively advocate for that solution.
The model is flexible to best meet the needs of our partners.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?
Each group chooses one social issue to help solve. They may choose a problem in their school — such as peer conflict, bullying, school food, bathrooms, or school safety — or they may choose a problem in their community — such as homelessness/affordable housing, littering, smoking, animal cruelty, gun violence, or climate change.
WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
We encourage students to consider all avenues of change. Their solutions are varied and include direct action, requests for new policies or resources at school, awareness raising (through PSAs, newsletters, art projects, toolkits, and workshops), advocacy meetings with local decision-makers, letter-writing campaigns to local businesses and other stakeholders, demonstrating community support through petition drives, coalition building, and more!
WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT NEED?
A consistent group of engaged students and an enthusiastic adult facilitator who inspires students to take the lead — but also can tell when they need a guiding hand.
WHAT DO STUDENTS GET FROM IT?
There are so many benefits to students of all ages: academic (developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills), emotional (increased self-esteem, broadened perspective, empathy and ability to take initiative) and social (gaining respect for and deepening connections with peers).
They benefit now: by learning to view themselves as valuable community members with important ideas and skills to share and in the future — because young people who have opportunities to make their voices heard are more likely to be engaged community members as adults.