The mission of the Youth Action Research Group (YARG) is to build the capacity of Washington, DC youth to critically analyze the problems facing their communities and to engage in organizing, advocacy, and civic education to affect concrete social and policy change around issues that directly impact their lives. YARG's youth members are high school and out of school young women and men of color age 13 to 21. They are all low and very low income. About half of YARG's youth members are African American, a quarter are Latino and Latino immigrants, and a quarter are African immigrants. YARG's youth run media projects, a monthly youth produced radio broadcast on Radio CPR, 97.5, and a youth written blog www.yargdc.blogspot.com, enable both new and veteran members to plug into concrete projects and reach out to more young people to build membership and adult allies to support their organizing campaigns. YARG youth members conduct classroom presentations, street outreach, and tabling at area schools to educate more DC youth about YARG's work and build their membership. YARG members help move their organizing campaign forward and receive intensive training and education around social justice issues, organizing, writing, and media. YARG fosters leadership, literacy and language development among its participants and provides them an enriching experience that prepares them for college and for careers in community organizing, advocacy and service delivery.

The Wellspring Foundation grant supported YARG's youth members in conducting research on the issue of youth jobs and job training in Washington, DC. Their research specifically targeted youth participants from DC's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) as well as employers from several different SYEP job sites. SYEP is a six-week summer program that DC provides for low to moderate-income youth between the ages of 14 to 21.

Over the next year, YARG's youth members will work to carry out and win their organizing campaign to restructure and fully fund DC's youth employment programming so that DC youth have year round access to inspiring, fulfilling, and challenging career training programs that support their development as competitive candidates for well paying jobs within DC's leading industries.