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Youth Powered for Unity at the Youth Unity Summit

Youth Powered for Unity at the Youth Unity Summit-Image

On February 28, more than 300 students from nearly 20 high schools across Wisconsin gathered at McFarland High School for the 2024 Youth Unity Summit.

Organized by We Are Many—United Against Hate, and co-sponsored by Wisconsin Humanities, this summit sought to engage youth in the critical conversation of how we prevent hate, hate crimes, and hate-motivated violence in Wisconsin schools and communities. Several new chapters of We Are Many—United Against Hate were established at the convening.

Wisconsin Humanities debuted its Youth Powered for Unity curriculum at the Youth Unity Summit. Developed as part of the United We Stand initiative launched by the White House in 2022, the Youth Powered for Unity curriculum engages students in critical reflection about hate in our community through a discussion of several recent hate crimes in Wisconsin. At the event, Wisconsin Humanities set up a gallery of eight posters sharing stories from events ranging from the shooting at the Oak Creek Gurdwara in 2012 to the harassment of American Indian hunters and anglers in the 1980s and 1990s. Every student was asked to walk through these posters and provide one word of reflection on a sticky note. The words were collected and converted into a word cloud featured on a poster presented to each of the school delegations at the end of the day.

A Youth Powered for Unity poster gallery helped students brainstorm what helped them fight hate; their responses were made into a word cloud shown here held by WAM-UAH CEO, Eric Horn.

This curriculum is currently being piloted in high schools and youth organizations across the state, learn more here and contact Benny Witkovsky (benny.witkovsky@wisconsinhumanities.org) if you are interested in bringing this curriculum to your school.

Richard “Mac” McKinney and Chris Buckley answer questions about their experiences with hate, alongside Summit moderator and Madison West High School senior, Laila Ahmed.

Other sessions at the event featured a panel discussion with Richard “Mac” McKinney, who once plotted to bomb a mosque in Indiana, and Chris Buckley, a former KKK leader, about their journey into hate and their long process of recovery and making amends. Students participated in workshops sponsored by the Cooperative Educational Service Agency 6 (CESA 6) and Braver Angels on developing skills to work across differences and have difficult conversations in a productive, respectful way. The event was opened with a written statement of recommendation from Vice President Kamala Harris and concluded with statements from former Republican and Democratic state legislators and a representative from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

You can see more photos here: https://www.united-against-hate.org/youth-unity-summit/.

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