Advocates’ Youth Activist Network (YAN) consists of young people from across the United States and around the globe. We represent the beginning of a global youth movement fighting for every young person’s right to honest sexual health information and affordable sexual health services.
Join us as we work to change irresponsible policies that deny young people information that could help us protect our health and even save our lives. Help us to shape our world into one that recognizes adolescent sexual development as normal and healthy and recognizes young people as leaders in the fight for social and reproductive justice.
Amplify is both the online home of the YAN and a fully-integrated hub for online activism and youth-led movement building. Dedicated to issues of sexual health and reproductive justice throughout the United States and around the world, Amplify will be a forum for activists to build their skills, forge connections, share ideas, and expand the scope of youth involvement on-line and on the ground.
Join the Youth Activist Network!
The YAN consists of the following groups of youth leaders:
International Youth Leadership Council (IYLC)
The International Youth Leadership Council is made up of young people with family ties to and/or interest in the developing world. These youth leaders work to improve US foreign policy regarding global HIV prevention and international family planning.
Council members serve as youth educators, advocates, and spokespeople on issues of adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Council members develop media outreach campaigns, conduct policy forums, plan and run press conferences, participate in advocacy visits to policy makers, and attend conferences to further the goals of the International Youth Leadership Council.
International Youth Activist Network (iYAN)
The International Youth Activist Network consists of young people and youth-led NGOs in the developing world, advocating for programs and policies that will improve youth reproductive and sexual health in their countries and internationally. iYAN leaders advocate on issues such as the increasing impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on women; improving access to treatment and care for HIV positive youth; increasing youth access to sexual health education, contraception, and condoms; and preventing maternal illness, injury, and death among young mothers. They work on these issues by lobbying stakeholders on domestic policies; raising public awareness through the media; mobilizing peers to take action; and participating and taking a leadership role at international conferences. IYAN Councils have already been started in Nigeria, Jamaica and Ethiopia. Learn more about the iYAN and join the campaign!
Young Women of Color Leadership Council (YWOC LC)
Due to the alarming rates of HIV and AIDS among young women of color, the Young Women of Color Leadership Council (YWOCLC) was started in 2002 to empower, educate and include young women of color in HIV prevention efforts and to build youth leaders.
YWOCLC consists of young women from all across the United States who have come together to prevent the spread of HIV in their communities, especially among other young women of color. These dynamic young women educate their peers so they will become involved in fighting HIV in their respective communities.
Great American Condom Campaign SafeSite Members
The Great American Condom Campaign is an underground, grassroots network of students working to distribute nearly 1,000,000 free condoms on college and university campuses where condoms are unavailable or difficult to access. This youth-led campaign operates on over 1,000 campuses throughout the United States.
Campus Organizers
The Campus Organizing Team is made up of college students from campus organizations across the United States and abroad working to mobilize and empower other students in the fight for honest sex education, affordable sexual health services, condom availability, and the rights of GLBTQ youth, among others. Campus Organizers serve as activists, advocates, and spokespeople at the local, state, and national level.
High School Organizers
The High School Organizers are an amazing group of students from across the United States, each of whom is working to improve sex education within their own school system. With help from Advocates staff, High School Organizers mobilize other students and then together create an action plan to build support for honest and complete sex education among teachers, parents, administrators and other policy makers
State Activists
The State Youth Activists include young people working for comprehensive sexuality education policies within their own states and communities. These youth come from across the United States and represent different experiences and successes. Their goal is to mobilize youth as well as community-based organizations to fight for honest, responsible sex education and to ensure that young people are listened to and have a voice within the debate.
MySistahs Online Peer Educators (MySistahs)
My Sistahs is a Web site created by and for young women of color to provide information and offer support on sexual and reproductive health issues through education and advocacy. Through monthly features, message boards, and online peer education, MySistahs peer educators provide young women with information on activism, culture, sexual health, and other issues that are important to them.
Youth Resource Online Peer Educators (YR)
YouthResource, a Web site by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) young people explores issues of concern to GLBTQ youth. Online peer educators answer questions posed by visitors and point visitors to they resources they need. They also write articles for the YouthResource Web site.
