The Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team (YWAT) is a group of primarily African-American high school females in Chicago who take action on social issues. They started out as a group of high school females working to end street harassment. Their primary mission is "to end violence against women and girls" and they "empower women to take action on issues that affect their lives (particularly issues of violence against girls and young women)." They primarily empower low-income women of color under 21 years of age.
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Work
Because of the problem of street harassment in Rogers Park, Chicago, a group of high school students decided to come together to end street harassment. According to the YWAT, they directly educated over 5,000 youth and adults about street harassment, healthy relationships, and in general about violence against girls and young women across the United States. They gathered data primarily through surveys. They primarily gathered information about domestic violence asking questions such as do you personally know a women who have experienced male violence?
Suspension stories
Suspension stories is an initiative resulting from the collaboration between the YWAT and Project NIA [1] that collect stories about students involved with unfair Suspension and Expulsion primarily through videos They have also filmed and gathered information from teachers and other school personnel
Engaging men
In June 2006, The YWAT started a project called Engaging Young Men as Allies to End Violence against Women and Girls. The beginning of the project consisted of a film. The film included interviews with young men, primarily African American and White. Young women who were personally impacted by male violence were also interviewed. A YWAT's male alley and classmate, collected over 45 surveys from young men. Another alley from Between Friends collected over 120 surveys. In total, the YWAT collected 226 surveys from young men ages 12-22. they summarized the key findings.
They asked young men surveyed why they thought that more men are not involved in working to end violence against women and girls. Their answers was: