Global Kids' Human Rights Activist Project (HRAP) provides youth in New York City with the skills, support, and opportunities needed to act on the human rights and public policy issues they care about. HRAP fuses organizing techniques with Global Kids' unique approach to youth development, helping participants build the confidence, critical thinking, and communication skills necessary to articulate their views and educate other youth and adults.

Each year, the program brings together a highly diverse group of youth who meet on a regular basis at their schools and as a citywide group. Within the program, they organize their peers, educate community members through social actions and performances, design and implement action plans, and rally support for an issue affecting them and their communities.

Throughout the year, youth participate in interactive workshops on issues related to a number of policy issues, organizing, and social action, while conducting intensive research, teambuilding activities, and campaign planning. As the youth develop the focus of campaign, program workshops are focused more on topics related to a specific policy issue, and activities intensively involve youth in researching and articulating their views about that issue.

In recent HRAP campaigns, students have:

• Created Public Service Announcements using digital media tools to educate their peers about healthy eating practices.
  
• Collaborated with the New York Civil Liberties Union to petition their peers to sign the Healthy Teens Act, mandating comprehensive sexual education for all New York State teens.
• Met with the LaGuardia Community College administration to discuss fair and transparent access to in-state tuition for resident undocumented students.  

HRAP International

In 2008, Global Kids created a new program, HRAP International, an international travel program that provides highly motivated HRAP students the opportunity to further develop the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to take action on critical human rights issues. Six students led an environmental justice exploration trip in Costa Rica during spring break. Another six students participated in the HRAP International trip to Mexico during the summer, to learn about human rights issues from the perspectives of the U.S. and Mexico. To read more about the HRAP trip to Mexico, click here.