Dream.Org teaches young adults to advocate in their communities

An advocacy training program funded by the NBA Foundation will serve 25 youth from marginalized groups in Maricopa County and provide them with the tools to solve issues within their own communities.

This fall, Dream.Org will host its second annual Justice Next Cohort in Phoenix for Black and Brown adults ages 18 to 24. The group’s mission is to empower young leaders with the knowledge, skillset and resources to deal with systemic inequities. The nonprofit focuses on finding solutions for major issues such as mass incarceration and climate change.

However, the experience participants gain is not limited to these two areas.

“The skills that they learn in our cohort can really apply to any issue area that they want to make change in their community. We teach them about how to organize people, how to build a campaign,” Dream.Org’s Senior Campaign Organizer Jessica Johnson said.

In nine weeks, program participants are taught how to share and tell their own personal stories, Johnson said. Young adults learn about leadership and legislative advocacy and are even taught how to build a resume.

The participants come from all walks of life, some are students and others have been incarcerated in juvenile or adult facilities, Johnson said.

“The people will learn a lot from the training that we teach, but they will also learn a lot from each other, I believe. There’s a great mix of people with lived experience and then classroom experience,” Johnson said.

Group leaders are searching for new participants to join this year’s cohort.

Dream.Org is accepting applications until September 5, 2025, with the first training session scheduled to start September 17.

Alumni share their experiences

Amari Rose and Ungildil True Kyota, who goes by Nini, were both a part of last year’s cohort. Rose and Kyota were both college students and were interested in creating change in their communities.

Rose grew up in Philadelphia but moved to the Valley with his family five years ago. His father had been incarcerated since he was one year old, and he never had the opportunity to build a relationship with his father.

“I never really got an experience of ever connecting with my dad while he was behind bars, and it made it really rough not having a father figure in my life,” Rose said. “I think just being able to create a bond even though you don’t have that physical connection, being able to talk, I feel like it’d be a lot more impactful for families around that impacted person.”

In the future, Rose hopes to advocate for children who have incarcerated parents. He said the way the prison system is built doesn’t encourage children to have a relationship with their incarcerated parents.

Listening to the stories of other members of the cohort helped Rose hear different perspectives.

“It’s really just an amazing experience to be able to go and hear other people’s voices and hear other people’s thoughts and how to maneuver through different things,” Rose said. “It’s an amazing experience. I’d recommend it 100 times over.”

How Dream.Org impacted one student’s life

Kyota also echoed Rose’s sentiments about learning from one another. She moved to Arizona to attend Arizona State University and grew up on the island of Guam.

As a kid, Kyota had a lot of awareness about climate change and how it affected everyone around her. The island is home to two military bases, Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam.

Kyota said the military bases have contributed to pollution.

“One big issue right now is the use of land at the northern tip of Guam for a firing range that would directly affect the cleanliness of our water, because as they use the firing range, those bullet cases go into the ground, and then those chemicals will soak into our aquifer,” Kyota said, adding, “And so it affects where all of our water comes from.”

Kyota is still figuring out her future path but knows she wants to study law and become an attorney. Due to her personal experiences, she hopes to advocate for climate change down the road.

“What the cohort did for me was give me more clarity on what exactly I can do to further my career because before, it’s like big dreams,” she said. “But the cohort helped me organize all of that and get me comfortable being in a professional space.”

Kyota believes a lot of young people want to help their communities but don’t always have the resources or skill set to do that. Kyota said she learned to take advantage of the opportunities around her and put herself out there, adding people of color are directly impacted by incarceration, climate change and other issues but don’t know how to get involved.

Kyota said that’s why programs like Dream.Org are important.

“I believe in that middle portion of young people that just need to be pushed in the right direction,” Kyota said. “I think that’s something that people overlook a lot is that we’re at such a delicate time in our lives, that all it could take is one opportunity, is one conversation, one thing to spark us going in a better direction for ourselves or a worse direction for ourselves.”

Reporting by “Arizona Horizon” Education Solutions Reporter Roxanne De La Rosa in partnership with Report for America. Photos courtesy of Dream.Org.