Riot Youth

Contact: Laura Wernick
Times: Fridays, 4-6 pm

Our aim is to bridge together LGBTQ and queer-friendly allied youth” to sustain a youth-run safe space. We want to educate and talk within the group while also supporting a variety of local youth activist and outreach projects.

Riot Youth, an LGBTQQ and allied youth program at Neutral Zone to provide social support and opportunities to create change, utilized participatory action research to improve their school climate. Participatory action research is a tool for marginalized populations, like LGBTQQ youth, to understand their community and create positive change. Youth designed Climate Survey (RYCS) for Ann Arbor Public Schools to bring to light the realities of students within hallways, classrooms and parking lots. Existing climate surveys were not specific to Ann Arbor, did not thoroughly research attitudes regarding gender identity and gender expression, and did not factor in issues of multiple intersecting identities such as race, ethnicity and religion into their products. The LGBTQQ and allied (A) teens in Riot Youth wanted data to unify their experiences and prove their difficulties were not isolated incidents in order to create change.

Read the full report (3.5mb)

Riot Youth is a LGBTQ youth program at Neutral Zone that fosters a safe social space and opportunity to organize for positive community change. Riot Youth is supported by Arcus Gay and Lesbian Fund, Liberty Hill’s Queer Youth Fund, and University of Michigan Arts of Citizenship.