Our School Year Program
Community Projects
In PhillyRoots, both staff and students participate in community projects (CPs), which are cooking, gardening, and civic empowerment. Meetings are held once a week for each CP, where students and staff dedicate their time to learn useful skills that may benefit them in the future, while also supporting the Vietlead community through a mutual aid system.
Cooking
Gardening
Civic Empowerment
Mass
Mass members are our newest participants in PhillyRoot’s program during the school year! Throughout the year, they are constantly dedicating time and effort to attend weekly meetings that teach about the many injustices that appear around them, while also learning about techniques and skills that can be used to help raise awareness or teach other people.
Lin Lin (They/Them)
VietLead is honestly my second family. As a mass member, I was able to participate in many workshops around complex topics like environmental justice, capitalism, gender, mental health, etc. The best part is how they are often oriented around Southeast Asian identity. Oftentimes, in organizing circles, East Asian voices are often taking up space but at VietLead, it provides a great space for people to share stories that are not the mainstream narrative. Throughout my time at VietLead, we always were held accountable to ourselves and our community members and it makes me feel really connected to my people.
Timothy Lao (He/Him)
Phillyroots has taught me the importance of advocating for others. Being surrounded by these intelligent and kind people has helped me grow in many different places. I now feel more intelligent and aware of my and other’s emotions. Phillyroots genuinely teaches it all. You can even learn to garden, all while unlearning ignorance and getting a better perspective of yourself. Phillyroots has given me a lot of room to grow, and a lot more awareness on the unspoken problems of our nation.
Youth Apprentices/Youth Organizers
Youth Apprentices (YAs) are students who have had at least one year of experience working with Vietlead, and Youth Organizers (YOs) are students who have had more than 2 years. YAs/YOs are to take on more responsibilities than mass students, including peer mentorship, base building, research, narrative framing, and community mobilization. YAs/YOs also take part in Campaigns; Community Defense, Healthy Schools, and Anti-Gentrification.
