our mission

 Bridge Builders CHANGE is a fellowship for youth community organizers working to create systemic, sustainable, positive change in our communities. We believe that youth not only are the future, but are the now and are essential in creating change. We also believe that all of our struggles are interconnected, and to work toward our collective liberation, we must unite and work together. To do this, we strive to work from a place of youth-adult equity and wholistic centered action. 

how do we do it?

In recent years, Bridge Builders CHANGE has been comprised of 4 cohorts: The Memphis Youth Union (MemYU), Education Justice (EDJ), Gender and Sexuality (GAS), and Memphis Against Sexual Assault and Harassment (MASHA). Each cohort aims to implement systemic and sustainable change by implementing a strategic plan that builds on the work of previous cohorts, in collaboration with current organizations and movements working on similar issues. Together, the four cohorts unite to support each other and advance their campaigns, creating an intersectional, youth-led movement. 

cLICK oN AN ICON Below TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH COHORT

​THE MEMPHIS YOUTH UNION (MEMYU)
EDUCATION YOUTH JUSTICE (EDJ)
GENDER AND SEXUALITY (​GAS)
MEMPHIS AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT (​MASHA)

our history

The 2020-2021 school year will be CHANGE's 10th year since it was first created. This fellowship has undergone tremendous growth and transformation:
2011-2012 Bridge Builders CHANGE's first cohort, consisting of 12 youth fellows, begins its work, focused on school food in SCS. By the 2012-2013 year, CHANGE had achieved the Student Congress Policy in SCS.
  • 2015-2016 MASHA and MemYU are created.
  • 2016-2017 Youth & Police Relations (YAPR), EDJ, and GAS are created.
  • 2017-2018 YAPR becomes Youth Justice (YJ) and focuses on ending youth solitary confinement. GAS focuses on GSAs and pop-up safe spaces. EDJ focuses on students' rights and restorative justice. MASHA focuses on workshops and SCS policy. 
  • February 2018 BRIDGES hosts the Youth Action Summit (YAS), its first national youth conference, organized by a team of CHANGE Fellows.
  • May 2018 Education Justice and Youth Justice combine to form one cohort—EDJ.
  • Summer 2020 MASHA, MemYU, GAS, and EDJ combine efforts to create the BSER (Brave, Safe, Educated, & Restorative) schools and classrooms campaign to protect LGBT+ students, undocumented students, survivors, and black and brown youth who are most likely to end up in the School-to-prison Pipeline. The year's committees are the Inclusive Classrooms Committee, the Counselors Not Cops Committee, and the Youth Power Hour Committee.​