About Us:
The National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) defends the civil and human rights of young people in the United States through educating people about youth rights, empowering young people to work on their own behalf in defense of their rights, and taking positive steps to lessen the burden of ageism. We believe certain basic rights are intrinsic parts of American citizenship and transcend age or status limits.
We Won!! NYRA Won $25,000 On Facebook!!
After an exhilarating and exhausting campaign to get the most votes in the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook over the last month, NYRA has emerged victorious! Thank you everyone who voted for us over the last four weeks! With your help we were one of the top 100 organizations in the Chase Community Giving contest! For being one of the top 100, NYRA won $25,000 for youth rights.
This is a historic victory for the cause. NYRA was up against organizations with 10 or even 100 times our budget, but we still won. Winning this $25,000 sends a powerful message that NYRA is a strong, effective, and growing organization committed to including young people in the communities, societies and institutions in which they live. This money will magnify NYRA's impact. Our reach and presence, both online and off will be strengthened greatly by winning this contest. Thank you to everyone for voting for us and for pestering your friends, family and neighbors to help us win this contest. Your hard work has paid off!
The next round of the contest begins on January 15, please stay tuned for how to help us win $1 million. The first step to help is to join the NYRA Fan Page on Facebook. Can you help us get over 1,000 fans by the time the next round of the contest starts? Please join and invite all your friends!
Southeast Florida's Lawsuit Moves Ahead
One of NYRA’s most legally active chapters, NYRA Southeast Florida has continued their good works in fighting against the enforcement of an illegal curfew in the city of West Palm Beach. The lawsuit itself, their piece de resistance, is tentatively scheduled for July 2010. It is a milestone for NYRA as a whole, as it is the first lawsuit filed by a NYRA chapter. For now, they have received an order from Judge Zloch to proceed with mediation, and will do so with the aid of Boca Raton civil rights attorney Barry Silver.
This is a very strong first step, forcing the City to evaluate, in the stark light of the law, just how unfair and undignified their curfew truly is, something the administration has repeatedly refused to do despite being shown compelling evidence. Under such scrutiny, the discriminatory ordinance is unlikely to long survive. According to NYRA SEFL’s lawsuit: "[a]lmost all conceivable actions of a minor including associating with his friends and family, speaking, traveling freely etc. are covered by the First Amendment.”
When reached for comment, NYRA President Jeff Nadel, one of NYRA SEFL’s most ardent political crusaders, said, “We're very glad that the lawsuit is progressing as it as, as we are simply unable to sit idly by as an unjust curfew is illegally enforced and as youth are intimidated by the City. The numerous exceptions in the curfew ordinance make it so the only way the curfew can be enforced is arbitrarily and discriminatorily.” Keep updated on the lawsuits progress here.
NYRA Sponsors First National Youth Rights Day
NYRA advisor Robert Epstein and NYRA Executive Director Alex Koroknay-Palicz have created the first National Youth Rights Day. The day, the first of its kind, will take place on April 14, 2010. This ground breaking event promises to be an opportunity to come together for the movement and a chance to bring youth rights into the news. NYRA and Dr. Epstein have begun inviting other prominent youth rights organization and supporters to co-sponsor this day. While expected to be a small event this year, it is hoped by all involved that National Youth Rights Day will continue to grow in future years. April 14 is the birthday of esteemed youth rights and unschooling pioneer, John Holt. This spring Epstein's new book, Teen 2.0, will hit shelves. It is the hope of all that the first annual National Youth Rights Day will help put the spotlight on the rights of youth and expose more people to the important arguments made in Teen 2.0. Mark your calendars because April 14, 2010 is sure to be a good day for youth rights.
Youth Candidate Barred from Running
It is not often a political candidate comes along who challenges the norm; politics in general is a fairly routine affair. Then there is Brett McClafferty. At the age of 19, he ran for mayor of the city of Streetsboro, Ohio. After the election – an election he lost by a single vote – the city, with no small amount of encouragement by the victor, passed an amendment to the city laws raising the age of candidacy to 23 for mayor and city council. NYRA has issued a press release condemning this action as both arbitrary and unconstitutional.
NYRA President Jeff Nadel said of the issue, “There are so many citizens and organizations in this country working to get young people more involved in politics. There are young people across this nation that work each day to effect positive change. Brett McClafferty, a courageous young man, ran for office because he wanted to serve the people of Streetsboro. After his one-vote defeat, the City decided that they no longer wanted young people involved in solving the issues that face us. They instituted an arbitrary minimum age for candidacy that we feel will not survive a challenge in court.”
McClafferty has written a book based on his experiences, “The Age of Politics,” published through AuthorHouse Publishing.
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Quote of the Month
We have the most prolonged adolescence in the history of mankind. There is no other society that requires so many years to pass before people are grown up ... Adolescence is nurtured and prolonged by educational processes and by industry that has found a bonanza in embracing the adolescent population and fortifying 'adolescent values.' This prolongation of adolescence robs the country of the population group having the most risk takers, and the highest ideals.
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