Over the last decade, the school-to-prison pipeline has gone from a fringe educational issue to a national youth-led movement anchored by grassroots communities across the country. Because of the school-to-prison pipeline’s unique effects on students of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students, and especially LGBTQ students of color, the issue has provided an opportunity for powerful intersectional work among the racial justice community and the LGBTQ community.
Power in Partnerships is a resource for all racial justice and LGBTQ groups to help build or continue to build that power. This resource shares the latest information on what the school-to-prison pipeline is and how it especially affects youth of color and LGBTQ youth. It makes the case for collaboration by hearing from youth about the importance of intersectionality, and take a step back to talk about the historical parallels of racial justice and LGBTQ movements. This resource also includes a guide to basic terminology that empowers us to speak each other’s languages. It includes a candid discussion of the barriers to collaboration that have prevented us from working effectively together in the past, and discuss best practices for collaboration. It also provides some tools to help move us forward, including effective strategies for fighting against school pushout and core messages to use when talking about this issue.
Population of focus: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students
Link to resource: Power in Partnerships: Building Connections at the Intersections of Racial Justice and LGBTQ Movements to End the School-to-Prison Pipeline (pdf)
Date: 2015
Organization: Advancement Project, Equality Federation Institute, and Gay Straight Alliance Network