MISSION
The Youth Free Expression Program empowers youth with knowledge, tools and opportunities to assert and defend their right to free expression.
Young people become thoughtful and informed adult citizens by learning, questioning and building critical thinking skills. This is undermined by attempts to stifle young voices and shield young people from controversial, disturbing or “inappropriate” content. YFEP believes that denying young people the freedom to create, explore and inquire is counterproductive and dangerous. Young people have every right to participate in conversations–locally, nationally and globally–that affect their lives.
On this page:
Resources
Our Work
Young Advocates
Contact Us
YFEP News
OUR WORK
Book Censorship
NCAC’s Kids Right to Read Project (KRRP) confronts challenges to books in school and public libraries, advocates against book rating systems and opposes censorship in school curricula. We work behind the scenes with groups of teachers, administrators and school leaders on policy guidance.
If you have experienced a book challenge in your school or library, please report it here.
Student Advocates for Speech
The Student Advocates for Speech (SAS) is a new national network of high school free speech clubs dedicated to empowering the next generation of leaders to advocate for freedom of expression as both a fundamental human right and a keystone of democracy.
More information about the program is available here.
Youth Free Expression Film Contest
The annual YFEP Film Contest invites teenagers to create a short film on a contemporary free speech debate of particular relevance to young people. The theme for 2022 is “What Does Free Speech Mean to Me?”.
The theme for 2021 was BODY LANGUAGE. See the finalists’ films here.
AMPLIFY STUDENT VOICES
Meet Ny’Shira Lundy and learn how she became a LITERARY ACTIVIST, watch Maggie Budzyna‘s film CENSORED and read about Jessica Kim‘s FIRST PROTEST. Read about a painting created at an after-school Black Lives Matter workshop at Sunset Park High School, and about the student journalist protest at Prosper High School; learn about how recent student sit-ins broke the record for the longest ever Howard University student protest, harkening back to historic campus takeovers by black student activists in the 1960s.
GET IN TOUCH
The best way to combat censorship is to call it out as it happens.
If you have experienced or witnessed a threat to free expression rights, please contact us! An advocate will get in touch with you.