We Empower youth to transform their life challenges into superpowers for positive change

The Short Summary:

EVAC is a youth-led movement based in Jacksonville, Florida that began when Black youth at Robert E. Lee High School realized their shared experiences with violence, racism, and the justice system…and desired change. Despite risk factors like homelessness and murdered loved ones, they succeeded beyond our wildest dreams: presenting at the White House, TEDx Talks and Harvard, as well as founding EVAC’s “I am Not a Gang Member” clothing line, to fight racial stereotypes they face. Once labeled “at-risk,” today they share their story to remind others to see them as they are: at-HOPE.

The Background:

The EVAC Movement started with a group of us as students and our teacher, Amy Donofrio, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Our class was full of conflict and divided, until we began sharing our stories, and realized our shared traumatic experiences: murdered loved ones, incarceration, and police brutality. We began not only to bond…but motivated to create change.

We began by inviting police officers to class for youth-led roundtables and just over one year later, these powerful in-class discussions led to us speaking at the White House, meeting President Barack Obama, making the front page of The New York Times and winning first-place nationwide in a contest sponsored by Harvard.

We share this journey in our Tedx Talk, “At-Risk or At-Hope? How We Label Youth Matters.”

Our mission now? To empower other youth do the same

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS:

Without funding or training, we used the power of HOPE to achieve:

  • presenting nationally, including at the White House, Capitol Hill, and four times at Harvard University

  • meeting President Obama and having our feedback used in his Youth Justice Proclamation of Oct. 2016

  • collaborating with the head of the US Department of Juvenile Justice

  • being the only African American males in the nation selected for Harvard’s Youth Advisory Board in 2018 and 2020

  • sharing our story on national media, including the front page of the New York Times and as the cover story of Good Morning America

  • meeting and forming partnerships with officials, both locally and nationwide;

  • sharing our story with the world by giving our own Tedx Talk, “At-Risk or At-Hope: How We View Youth Matters”

  • Harvard Youth Advisors, only African-American male youth selected in nation, Nov. 2018 & Nov. 2020

  • Presenters, to Head Admin of the US Dept. of Juvenile Justice

  • Presenters, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education Annual Alumni of Color Conference, 2018 & 2020

  • TedxJacksonville Speaker, “At-Risk or At-Hope: How We View Youth Matters, 2017

  • US Dept. of Justice Youth-Police Roundtable in DC (2 of 14 youth nationwide),, April 2016

  • Presenters at Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) National Youth Summit, 2016 & 2018

  • National Winners of Harvard’s KIND School Challenge and Campaign for Youth Justice’s Social Media Challenge

  • Met Sen. Cory Booker and civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis

  • 50+ participations in justice panels/presentations

  • 50+ features in the media

On a personal level, many of us were empowered to:

  • build our first positive relationships with officers and justice officials;

  • take our first flight and/or first time out of Jacksonville;

  • get our first jobs and host a job fair for our school;

  • start our own clothing line of “I Am Not a Gang Member” to fight stereotypes;

  • fully avoid violence and crime;

  • double our GPAs;

  • become the first in our families to graduate high school;

  • consider college for the first time and take our first college tours;

  • comfort our classmate through the loss of a parent;

  • share with our classmates while they were homeless;

  • get a donated car and apartment for a classmate who aged out of foster care;

  • successfully fight to get our classmate juvenile sanctions and a two-year youth program after originally being given a ten-year adult felony sentence;

  • create a brotherhood in a class where many have lost brothers

  • embrace hope for our future and our Jacksonville community.