ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role that the youth workers play in facilitating the political power of low-income youth of color. It argues that the political education and mentoring the young adult allies do with teenage activists is crucial in bringing youth voice into adult-dominated education policy discussions. The chapter explains the stress of youth workers in formalized nonprofits to both develop youth leaders and help these leaders project a collective youth presence that is respectable and ultimately palatable to adults in power so that they can maintain legitimacy in educational politics. It examines the multifaceted and sometimes contradictory role that young adult allies play in mentoring teenage activists in the racial justice organizations. Youth organizers, especially those in the funded nonprofit context, play a vital role in helping to translate low-income teens' everyday experiences of racial and educational injustices into political outrage, political consciousness, and political efficacy.
