Across the world, young people are leading change. From the streets of Nairobi to classrooms in New York, from the courtrooms of Buenos Aires to the community spaces of Manila, youth organizers are transforming frustration into action, and hope into power.
On October 30, over 200 people came together for the event “How to Rise Together: Youth Movements and Legal Empowerment”, part of the Power of Learning series by the Grassroots Justice Network. Four young leaders — Waringa Wahome (Mathare Social Justice Centre, Kenya), Mijael Kaufman Falchuk (Consciente Colectivo, Argentina), Billie Blanco (Ateneo Human Rights Center, Philippines), and Diana Imbert (Defying Legal Gravity, USA) — came together to share how they’re building and sustaining movements from the ground-up.
The energy in the room was electric. The conversation opened with a poem by Gloria Sounou: “To use the law is to reject fear and abandonment. To shape it is to write our own future.” Each speaker embodied that vision — not just in theory, but also in action.
In Nairobi’s Mathare, a community often defined by exclusion and police violence, the youth are reclaiming their narrative. What began as documenting killings has grown into a movement where residents know, use, and shape the law to demand safety and dignity. “When we lose our fear, they lose their power,” Waringa said. Organizing here is not abstract — it’s survival turned into strategy.
For Mijael, activism begins with accessibility. Legal frameworks can’t live on paper — they must speak the language of ordinary people. In his work on human rights and environmental justice, a key focus is to translate technical rights into ideas people can relate to in their everyday lives. “We need to build new narratives, new ways of speaking, so human rights are not these nice things on paper, and instead something that transforms the lives of people,” he said.
From the Philippines, Billie shared how her team at the Ateneo Human Rights Center supports youth who walk alongside communities — not as saviors, but as partners. Under shrinking civic space, they practice accompaniment: listening, documenting, and co-creating justice with those most affected. “The law isn’t something to defend,” she said. “It’s something to shape to serve communities.”
When talking about engaging younger people in justice movements, Diana shares a simple truth: young people already care about justice. “You’re just giving that energy a home,” she added. At her work with Defying Legal Gravity, the programs make legal literacy dynamic and creative — helping youth understand not only how laws work, and use it to support their communities.
Through each example, we see how young people are building new democratic muscle from the ground up. And at the heart of it all is legal empowerment — the practice of helping people know, use, and shape the law to claim their rights and hold power accountable. It transforms organizing from protesting alone to long-term change.
You can watch the full call recording here.
Grassroots Justice Network hosted this event as part of our #PowerofLearning series. Follow us @GrassrootsJN for more stories and sessions on how communities everywhere are building power from the ground up.