Mission: Social justice!

Community advocates met with Albany High School seniors Monday to help them identify a social justice mission and analyze how to help balance the scales of power in their community.

Leading the discussions were activists Debora Brown-Johnson and Beverly Ivey of Albany NAACP, Sierra and Diandra Sangetti-Daniels of the People’s Perception Project and Rev. Joe Paparone of the Poor People’s Campaign.

The students are taking Civics and Public Engagement, and Monday's assembly was designed to generate excitement about their senior capstone project – an assignment that will help them synthesize and demonstrate what they’ve learned in school and through a social justice project they will take on.

Students and advocates discussed the meaning of a social justice mission, how to analyze power dynamics (they had a tug of war to demonstrate power imbalance), ways to shift power and how to connect people in communities for the greater good.

Throughout the year, and with guidance from their teachers, the students – most of the senior class – will network with the advocates and their connections to build their own social justice network for their project.

Seniors who successfully complete their social justice project will earn a Seal of Civic Readiness on their high school diploma.