NEYON PD + Action Fund
NEYON FUND
Creating a culture of collaboration and skill sharing across NEYON members to promote mutual learning.
A Professional Development and
Action Fund for the NEYON community
The NEYON Fund is open to all NEYON organizations to access up to $2,000 for any organizational needs, including but not limited to program opportunities, capacity building, training, collaborations and supplies. Please be advised that our NEYON Fund is almost out for 2024. Apply immediately to inquire!
Organizations have previously used the NEYON fund to support to attending train-the-trainer workshops, storytelling trainings and other related organizing trainings. They’ve also been implemented for working artist fellowships, emergency funds for actions and stipends for short-term campaigns, food, travel and program supplies.
To find information on how some of our NEYON organizations have used their funding visits the funded groups tab below.
$2000 for programming needs, training opportunities, supplies, transportation and more activities.
Project could be completed by December 31st, 2024.
The NEYON fund is currently only available to organizations that are part of the New England Youth Organizing Network. Funds are offered on a first first serve basis and are distributed pending availability.
Projects or efforts that the fund supports must be completed by December 31st ,2024 and payments can only be made to organizations and not to individuals.
We encourage you to apply to the NEYON Fund as soon as you see a need for your organization since funds are distributed on a first come first serve basis.
Final request for the 2024 NEYON fund must be sent in by November 30th, 2024 to ensure a pay out is made before the end of the year.
- The current funds are available to support activities through December 31st, 2024
- We will open up the fund for groups that have already received funding this year to apply again after September 21st, 2024 if funding is still available
- Unless otherwise authorized, requests will not be accepted after November 30th, 2024
- Funds will be disbursed to organizations, the funds can not be paid out to individuals
The NEYON Fund is coordinated and distributed through the Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE) at Roger Williams University. If you have any general questions about the fund please reach out to Diana Araujo at daraujo@rwu.edu or cycle_youth@rwu.edu
- To being your application process please fill out this google form
- Once the form has been completed keep an eye out for a confirmation email from someone on the CYCLE team and for a paperwork to process via Docusign
- Expect a follow- up from the CYCLE team in early 2025 to arrange how to share your learnings or actions that were supported by the fund with the rest of NEYON. This can include contributing to a project summary for the NEYON newsletter, sharing resources and posting on social media .
2023 NEYON Fund Share-Out
The 2023 NEYON Fund was a success! 8 NEYON organizations accessed the fund which supported cool project initiatives across the region from conducting a YPAR focused on ELL storytelling, reimagining out-of-school time learning, social justice camp, Youth leadership conferences & powerful campaigns! Here are a couple of share-outs on how NEYON groups utilized the funds:
Maine Youth Action Network
“Over 600 middle and high school students and adult advisors attended the 2023 Maine Youth Leadership Conference, a two-day event planned in partnership with a dedicated team of high schoolers. The in-person and online two-day event boasted more than 30 community-led workshops, robust networking opportunities, and advocacy skill-building.
The NEYON fund supported subsidized transportation and lodging for participants. It also supported a shuttle to help transport groups without their own transit to and from the state house for tours and engagement opportunities there. The remaining funding went towards presenter stipends for workshops.”
Revere Youth in Action
“For about a year, RYiA youth have been working on an ELL storytelling project that is being conducted by our ELL fellows. As a cohort, we have been identifying common themes in folx lived experiences from the 80’s-now in ELL programs. We just completed our theme analysis for round 1 which included roughly 13 interviews, and we are beginning outreach and interview question creation for round 2.”
Young Voices
“NEYON Funding supported YV’s efforts to reimagine out-of-school time learning. Below are some key takeaways:
- YV was able to share key learnings from their powered by youth campaign at the national level.
- Our youth representative Marco Lima demonstrated strong leadership and understanding of youth policy and advocacy that he recently attended to the Youth Policy Summit: Cultivating Possibilities at the White House. More information here: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-holds-first-ever-interagency-youth-policy-summit-cultivating-possibilities
- YV is in the final process of finalizing our YPAR “The After School Experience”. Preliminary findings was presented at the RI Afterschool Network Lights on Afterschool event this past fall.
- Lastly, Wujuudat Balogun, another youth member of our team was a panelist on Powered by Youth Voice: Future of Afterschool for Youth, By Youth. Over 200 folks attended the virtual gathering from across the nation.
In summary, all this work would not have been possible without the NEYON Funds. We were able to expand the learnings from this campaign that we have been working one over the last 2 years.”
Education Justice Coalition of VT
“The goal of the camp was to not only create an incredible learning experience for youth in Chittenden County, [VT] but to also provide a framework so youth across the state have access to a camp like this. We created a toolkit to inspire folks in other areas of the state to start something similar to a Summer Social Justice Camp.”
Stories Inspiring Movements
“SIM used the 2023 NEYON funds towards SIM Camp in April 2023. This was a critical gathering for SIM leaders, partners, and stakeholders to work together on the Tuition Equity Campaign. We spent our time together making decisions about how we wanted to approach the organizing around this campaign by designing strategy, tactics, and a timeline.
We are proud to share that the work we did in SIM Camp was the foundation for our organization to fight to win Tuition Equity in August 2023 through the State Budget. Our leadership had been preparing for months to make the space intentional, meaningful, and centered in a long-term vision to continue fighting to the liberation of the undocumented community in MA.
Honoring the peaks and valleys of organizing, we are celebrating this historic win while also engaging in the planning of the second phase of this campaign to expand access to Tuition Equity and higher ed – additionally we already have our vision set on building the people power to fight for other policies that win work authorization for the full undocumented community (not just youth or people who are considered Dreamers) and take away status requirements for licensure.”
Providence Youth Student Movement
“These funds were used to support an organizational realignment process we initiated in the Fall of 2023. This process was to update our Vision, Mission, Values, as well as our approach to our ongoing programs & campaigns. Our goal was to develop a stronger youth leadership curriculum to support recruitment and retainment efforts. Our second goal was to better define our organizational structure so we can show up stronger in our coalition and campaign efforts for the long-term. Lastly, staff will be re-learning youth engagement and organizing efforts to better bridge the intergenerational gap in our campaigns.”
Goals of this Funding
Support NEYON members expand their organizing capacity and skills through giving financial support for professional development, action and programing opportunities.
Create a culture of collaboration and skill sharing across NEYON members to promote mutual learning.
Eligibility
The NEYON fund is only accessible to group that are currently a part of the network.
The NEYON Funds will be offered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please make your requests by filling out this Interest Form
Identify a project that the funds will support. The project can be completed by December 31, 2024.
Once your request is submitted (through the interest form) keep an eye out for a confirmation email from a member of CYCLE Youth team and for paperwork to process the fund via DocuSign.
Expect a follow-up from the CYCLE Team in early 2025 to arrange how to share your learnings or actions with the rest of NEYON. This can include contributing to NEYON’s newsletter, writing a blog, sharing resources, a summary and pictures with the NEYON listserv, and/or tagging us on a Instagram post @NEYON_CYCLE
Terms
The current funds are available to support activities through December 31st, 2024.
If not all NEYON organizations have filled out the form anytime between now and September 21st, 2024, we will open up the fund again to all groups with priority for those who did not express interest before. The maximum amount for a single organization in any given round is $2000.
Funds will be disbursed to organizations, the funds can not be paid out to individuals.
Where do I apply?
Apply for funds by clicking the button below and fully completing the application form. Once the form has been submitted, our team will be in contact with next steps.
The NEYON Fund is coordinated and distributed through the Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education at Roger Williams University.
If you have any general questions about the funds please contact Diana Araujo at daraujo@rwu.edu or
cycle_youth@rwu.edu.