Youth Rights Network

From YRN

The Youth Rights Network is an community driven youth rights resource sponsored by the National Youth Rights Association and The Freechild Project.

[edit] About

The Youth Rights Network (YRN) is designed to house an extensive collection of youth rights resources, articles, and information. As a community-edited wiki, YRN depends on the involvement of its visitors to ensure an expansive, accurate, and useful resource.

Fighting for youth rights is an uphill battle plagued by lack of information, lack of resources, and lack of knowhow. The Youth Rights Network intends to fix that by providing information on all youth rights issues, organizations, books, and individuals. Plus how-to guides for activists like the Youth Lobbying Guide and how-to guides for youth who just can't wait till laws are changed to live free, and need tips on how to claim their freedom directly, like the A Teenagers Guide to Financial Independence.

The planned center piece of the project will be a comprehensive youth law library. With the help of youth everywhere, this section intends to compile a list of every state, federal, and local law that impacts the rights of young people. Organized by state and by topic, this resource promises to be of invaluable help to young people who need to know just what rights they do have, and how to exercise them. We at the Youth Rights Network firmly believe information is power, and power is what young people have the least of.

This website is for every young person who wants to learn more about their rights, get help in fighting for them, and participate in a community of youth working to build those resources.

[edit] History

The Youth Rights Network was a project originally conceived of by Matt Herman in the spring of 2000. Its original purpose was to provide a central and independent resource for the entire Youth Rights movement, which was split into various organizations such as Americans for a Society Free of Age Restrictions (ASFAR), NYRA, Youth Speak, the now-defunct Canadian Youth Rights Association (CYRA) and others. It was seen as the "hub of the youth rights movement" and promised to be the entry point into all other organizations online. Originally located at YouthRights.org, the project unfortunately never made it past an early page template and idea.

In May 2001 the YouthRights.org domain was given to the National Youth Rights Association and has been their home on the web ever since. The Youth Rights Network became yet another unfinished youth rights project.

In early December 2004 the idea was revived by Alex Koroknay-Palicz and Jason Kende, and a youth rights wiki was created and housed at YouthRights.net.

On April 13, 2007, CommonAction joined the project as a full sponsor and administrator. CommonAction's programs, including The Freechild Project and SoundOut, promote the YRN on their websites and in their workshops across the country as part of this powerful partnership.