The Gem Project, Inc.

The Gem Project, Inc. Leadership. Education .Youth & Young Adults. Action: http://thegemproject.org

The Gem Project works to improve high school to college student engagement, while supporting on-time graduation rates, through peer-mentoring, employment, youth organizing and service-learning initiatives that take on a social justice approach. Visit Us:
http://THEGEMPROJECT.ORG http://twitter.com/THEGEMPROJECT http://instagram.com/THEGEMPROJECT

🔉 The Youth Power Action Summit hit different.A vibrant room full of joy and laughter. A packed stage. A fireside chat w...
04/14/2026

🔉 The Youth Power Action Summit hit different.

A vibrant room full of joy and laughter. A packed stage. A fireside chat with Newark's School Board candidates where young people asked the questions that actually mattered. Joy, power, and policy in the same room.

Now we take it to the polls.

Free rides. Free meal. Your vote. 🗳️
Book yours: http://bit.ly/freeridestovote

📷 - Fresco Alessandro

With over 100+ youth attending today's youth-led coalition event: the Youth Summit & Fireside Chat with School Board Ca...
04/11/2026

With over 100+ youth attending today's youth-led coalition event: the Youth Summit & Fireside Chat with School Board Candidates.

We have closed RSVPs, however, you may still attend but priority will be given to those who RSVP'd. Your admission for seating will be 15 minutes to the start time.

***The summit starts at 12 PM and Fireside Chat with Candidates starts at 4:00 PM.

***Therefore, those who did not RSVP ahead note the following:
12:15 PM, if you are younger than age 25 or official YPA allies.

***If older than age 25, 4:15 PM.

The location is as follows:
The Heart Ballroom
37-39 Bloomfield Avenue
Newark, New Jersey 07104

Parking:
Limited street parking is available on first come and serve basis. DO NOT park in the lot next to the building.

Public Transportation:
The venue is accessible via NJ Transit bus lines 11, 28, GO28, 29, and 72, with stops at Bloomfield Ave and Clifton Ave, about one block away. You can also take the Newark Light Rail to the Bloomfield Avenue Station nearby.

03/22/2026

W/ YOUTH POWER ACTION COALITION ~ Canvassing with youth within the South and West Wards, distributing 2000 literature on the upcoming school board elections, occurring in Newark, New Jersey. Leaders recap their experience with each other stopping by Clinton Hill Community Action Community Grocery Store.

03/19/2026

And just like that, we launched 15 players with THEIR collective goal to reach 450 young people.

Each player is equipped with recruitment packets, scripts, text outreach, and flyers. They are ready.

This is one of many strategies we are using to build toward a more equitable civic space, where youth voice is not just heard, but championed and valued.

The vision is bigger than this moment. Youth have the potential to become one of the most powerful voting blocs in our communities. That kind of power is built intentionally, and it will last long after the spotlight fades.

The average goal per player is 25 young people.

Some players lead PTAs. Others lead youth programs. Many are youth themselves.

That is what makes this powerful.

Now, let the games begin 🏆

Youth — this is your space.Youth Power Action Summit📅 April 11 | 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM✔ Civic Workshops✔ Real conversations...
03/17/2026

Youth — this is your space.

Youth Power Action Summit
📅 April 11 | 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

✔ Civic Workshops
✔ Real conversations
✔ Youth from across the city
✔ Fireside Chat with School Board Candidates (members of community welcome here at 4:00-5:30 PM).

Ages 14–24 only.
👉 RSVP: http://youthpowersummit.com
------
🎤 Student-Led School Board Candidate Fireside Chat (segment within the summit)
📅 April 11 | 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
* This segment is open to the community, all others are youth only, no age restrictions for the fireside chat segment but must RSVP.

✔ Learn how decisions impact students
✔ Hear directly from candidates
✔ Ask questions that matter

👉 RSVP: http://youthpowerchats.com

03/07/2026

It is always a special moment when we register a young person to vote.

Jaeden is no different.

Youth #237 on Youth Power Action Coalition, he is 17, Newark resident and is voting for the FIRST time in the school board election.

He looked up his polling location and we tracked it.
Why? By any means necessary Jaeden will get to the polls!
He is also a part of Kaleena Berryman's Newark Youth Career Pathways's student advisory board. He said he heard about the policy movements of YPA, now he is a member -- now he is also a registered VOTER.

He felt so proud in the end. It makes the long days worth it. Tomorrow, youth will be out canvassing again 11-2 PM Saturday and Sunday.

We released this clip this week.

This is the time to tap into youth energy, curiosity and self-determination.

Today we are attending the Pencils Up Write Your Freedom Conference, led by Mumtaz Cooper, founder of the nonprofit orga...
10/18/2025

Today we are attending the Pencils Up Write Your Freedom Conference, led by Mumtaz Cooper, founder of the nonprofit organization Pencils Not Prisons.

Mumtaz Cooper was recently admitted as a 2025–2026 The Gem Project, Inc. High School Fellow. She is also a Carnegie Fellow with our colleagues at the Institute for Institute for Citizens & Scholars and serves on the Board of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project.

About Pencils Not Prisons:
A youth-led movement reimagining justice, one idea at a time.
We are students, storytellers, and policy shifters committed to ending cycles of incarceration and building futures rooted in equity, education, and community. From advocacy workshops to youth-led hackathons, we are here to make noise and make change.

For today’s sold-out, free conference at The People’s Forum in New York City, Mumtaz has made it accessible for many young people by covering meals, honorariums for youth speakers, travel reimbursements, and more — and she has not even graduated high school yet.

We are beyond excited to learn and grow alongside her at this powerful gathering to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

In addition, our The Gem Project, Inc. high school fellow Fatoumata Bah and program associate Jenny Idrobo are co-leading a workshop on the Accountability Scorecard for Elected Officials, titled Nothing About Us Without Us: Building a Youth-Led Accountability Scorecard.

🚨 SHARE ON -- LET'S PULL UP, YOUTH 🚨Youth Power Action is alive and well. In this 4th Annual Youth-Led Newark School Boa...
03/13/2025

🚨 SHARE ON -- LET'S PULL UP, YOUTH 🚨

Youth Power Action is alive and well. In this 4th Annual Youth-Led Newark School Board Candidate Forum hosted by Youth Media Symposium and The Gem Project, Inc., we got the support of several young people, allies, and partners who are part of Youth Power Action.

We need YOUTH and YOUNG ADULTS everywhere to pull up next Saturday. Families are welcome. Let’s make voting and elevating the POWER OF VOICE a tradition.
kick-off

We have two places to be AND transportation is provided from the kick off.

RSVP – IS A MUST: http://bit.ly/4thforum

Giveaways AND lunch (kickoff) and popcorn (CityPlex) are provided.

#1 - THE KICK OFF: Newark Youth One-Stop Career Center — 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM

*Shuttle service, prioritizing YOUTH will take them to CityPlex, from the KICK OFF*

#2 - THE FORUM: CityPlex Newark Movie Theater — 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

The vision of Youth Power Action is simple. Young people everywhere are empowered to take control of their civic engagement. Through a dynamic, youth-driven platform, youth aim to provide the tools, resources, and spaces for to self-organize, mobilize, and act on the issues that matter most to them and their communities.

We also just launched the platform and app for youth age 16-24 to convene, be matched with a partner, Mentor of Youth Power Action, chatrooms, voter education resources and more: http://youthpoweraction.com.

Our Partners:
🌟 The Gem Project, Inc.🌟 Youth Media Symposium🌟 Opportunity Youth Network 🌟 Youth Career Pathways🌟 Water Coalition 🌟 SHE Wins Inc. 🌟 Great Oaks Legacy Charter School 🌟 New Jersey Institute for Social Justice 🌟 Young Voters Association 🌟 Newark Youth One-Stop Career Center🌟 Complex Vision Newark 🌟 The Jersey Bee

🫶 If you would like to help us set up and/or register young people to vote online either at the Forum or at the KICK OFF, email: [email protected] by Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

Celebrating Progess! From voting rights to education reform, Gem Project Fellows are proving the power of youth-led acti...
01/08/2025

Celebrating Progess!

From voting rights to education reform, Gem Project Fellows are proving the power of youth-led action. Let’s celebrate their impact! 🌟 :

🌟 Statewide Reach via Partnership with NJSACC and Newark Board of Education: The Gem Project was engaged as a partner to provide technical assistance and coaching to project directors of the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

Recent Youth-Led Advocacy Wins:
🌟 The Gem Project Fellows helped lower the voting age for school board elections in Newark, New Jersey, showcasing the power of youth-led advocacy w. and partners (2024).
🌟 Gem Project fellows partnered with Greater Newark Health Care Coalition, engaging nearly 500 families, and aiding NJ FamilyCare's (Medicaid) redetermination process after pandemic protections expired (2023)
🌟 Facilitated a citywide youth-led youth organizing and training conferences. Youth learned about the basics of youth organizing and facilitation surrounding justice pillars: education, youth justice, and health, and facilitated workshops for 55 high school and college-aged youth (2022).
🌟 Advocating for policy changes within the Newark School Board of Education, such as addressing board vacancies and promoting community acknowledgment and support (2021).
🌟 Championing youth representation in Newark’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (2021).
🌟 Hosting and co-moderating School Board Candidate forums w. and developing Youth Advisory Boards for local not-for-profits (2021-2024).
Recognized by Middle School Educators Nationwide:
🌟 Through Scholastic Magazine, 330,000 middle school teachers will educate students about Newark youth and their historical achievement in lowering the voting age, inspiring civic engagement nationwide.
Data-Driven Advocacy:
🌟 Fellows led focus groups and produced white papers addressing systemic barriers in education, using these insights to inform policy recommendations and community organizing strategies. They’ll be presenting at the REACH conference at Rutger University - New Brunswick Jan 16, 2025.

10/24/2024

I love that 41 The Gem Project, Inc. fellows (across 2 cohorts) will be working with us this year and 11 additional fellows will be joining in the upcoming on some initiatives 2025.

The diversity is telling and the engagement is high. Sitting in on Jenny Idrobo as our Program Associate -- who started with us fresh out of high school -- worked with us as a College Fellow and facilitator and is coming on as this year's program associate.

High Schools represented in the 2024-2025 cohort thus far:

Malcolm X Shabazz High School (most represented!)
Gateway Academy Charter School
Central High School
St. Vincent Academy
Science Park High School
North Star High School
West Windsor Plainsboro High School
John Hopkins University
Hampton University (Hassan Abdus-Sabur, thanks!)
Montclair State University
The College of New Jersey
Bloomfield College of Montclair University
Rutgers University - Newark
Seton Hall University
New Jersey City University

We are launching something in December that focuses on collective youth power building -- and it belongs to no one, but the youth.

Address

PO Box 32322
Newark, NJ
07102

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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