Biko co-wrote an article with the NAACP’s National Youth & College Director Stefanie Brown about the Youth PROMISE Act, a truly non-partisan piece of social justice legislation that would represent the most serious investment in the social health of urban youth in recent years. Here’s an excerpt:

If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to protect the children of the village?  The Center for Disease Control reports that youth violence is the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24; an average of 16 young people are murdered every day.  As a village, Congressional leaders included, we ALL need to do our part to save our children.

Read the full story at Politic365.

The Texas League of Young Voters Education Fund is led by Christina Sanders and Blake Green, both of which have a strong passion for voter participation and civic engagement. Since high school, Christina and Blake have been working together to educate and engage young people in the democratic process. Now, as college graduates, they are leveraging their knowledge, skill, experience and love for their State  toward creating and sustaining a league of  young voters in Houston and across Texas.

Christina

Christina Sanders, State Director

Prior to joining the Texas League’s team, Christina worked in the Office of Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis as a District Aide and Policy Analyst. Prior to joining Senator Ellis’ team,  Christina worked in public policy as the coordinator for Houston Communities for Safe Indoor Air (HCSIA), where she worked on smoke-free policy change and childhood obesity policy. HCSIA has recently been featured as a policy success program by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey.

Christina, a Houston native, received her Bachelor’s of Political Science and Master’s of Public Administration in Public Policy degree from Texas Southern University. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, where she remains active in the Alpha Kappa Omega Chapter.

Email Christina: christina@youngvoter.org

Blake

Blake Green, Deputy State Director

Prior to joining the Texas League’s team, Blake served as Senior Legislative Aide and Policy Analyst to State Representative Hubert Vo in the Texas House of Representatives, where he was instrumental in drafting and introducing legislation that would allow 17 years olds to vote in primary elections. Blake has also served as Program Advisor to the Mayor’s Youth Council and Teen Task Force in the City of Houston, under the mayoral leadership of Dr. Lee P. Brown and Bill White. In addition, Blake’s background includes working in higher education and in Houston’s corporate energy sector.

Blake, a Houston native, received his Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Texas Southern University. Blake is a graduate of United Way’s Project Blueprint program and currently serves on a number of nonprofit boards throughout the Houston community.

Email Blake: blake@youngvoter.org

Texas Director Christina Sanders (left) with volunteer

We are thrilled to announce that our Texas State Director, Christina Sanders, has been nominated by a staff member at the New Organizing Institute as 2010′s Most Valuable Organizer.

Anyone who has worked with Christina before knows that she is a passionate organizer with all the best qualities of a field director: the ability to stay on talking points while giving an interview and then turn right back around and motivate a struggling volunteer to go back into the field to get the job done.

We are proud of Christina for her incredible work this year and wish her good luck in winning this well deserved nomination.

Please vote for Christina by “liking” her entry right here!

Texas League of Young Voters Education Fund participated in Texas RootsCamp, facilitated by Matt Glazer with GNI Strategies in Austin, TX. Since 2006, NOI has hosted RootsCamp, an “unconference” where organizers set the agenda, share lessons learned and drive the conversation about best practices in organizing. Rather than panels and powerpoints, people have real live conversations about valuable organizing lessons taken from the field, both online and offline.  Topics included field strategies, creating local PACS and non-proftis, online fundraising, blogs and progressive activism, and the future of press and politics.

The League’s Executive Director, Rob “biko” Baker, is moderating a panel in Milwaukee on Saturday titled Beyond the Bricks.

The Beyond the Bricks project is a documentary and national community engagement campaign created with the goal of promoting local and national solutions to one of America’s critical problems: the consistently low performance of black males in school. During the Town Hall, we’ll discuss and plan what we can all do to create healthy communities for our youth to support them receiving a quality education.

If you’re in Milwaukee on Saturday, come check it out and join the conversation. Contact us at online-at-youngvoter-dot-org if you have any questions.