Meet Our Community Members
Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice was founded in May 2022 with the mission of fighting for justice and opportunity for every Oklahoman. OK Appleseed is part of a national network of justice centers called the Appleseed Network, which includes seventeen other centers across the United States and one in Mexico City.
The Network was founded by the 1958 Harvard Law Class in the 1990s to serve as a grassroots public interest law network. The Network uses four tools of social change to improve society and advocate for under-resourced communities: structural litigation, legal research, community organizing, and legislative change.
OKRSC began its advocacy journey in 2018 as they gathered together rural public school parents and educators to fight SB441 - legislation designed to remove local control from the school calendar process and essentially eliminate the choices of rural communities to have a 4-day school calendar option. The OKRSC’s community grew to nearly 4,000 members by the fall of 2020. At this point in time, they decided to expand their reach beyond supporters of the 4-day school week to include ALL rural school district parents, community members, educators, and school administrators. Upon rebranding to the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, their membership has grown to over 10,000 members.
OKRSC aims to empower Oklahoma public education supporters by delivering an easy-to-access tool that encourages increased legislative accountability, improved voter knowledge, and greater community engagement. OKRSC’s three focus areas include:
Publish Oklahoma Education Voter Guide for primary and general elections
Evaluate legislative voting records
Track key education legislation
Access quality community engagement curriculum
The Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma (RJIOK) seeks to transform the retributive and inequitable culture of our state. RJIOK offers training in restorative practices designed with and for individuals, families, schools, and organizations to reduce trauma, dehumanization, and recidivism.
Generation Citizen is a national organization that strives to transform how civics is taught by providing civic education to middle and high school students. By partnering with local middle and high schools with their local chapters, Generation Citizen implements a project-based civics curriculum that engages students in their own communities.
Generation Citizen helps students understand how governments function and demonstrates how they can make a difference in their communities. GC has made strides in Oklahoma by building an education movement that equips and inspires young people to transform our democracy.
Alongside their coalition partners and advisory council, GC works to advance legislation and policy research that protects and prioritizes quality civics education and supports local leaders and allies working to change the national conversation around civics.
Some local victories include a GC class project that led to three years of student advocacy for the 2022 passage of SB283, which requires adults who sell alcohol to minors to attend victim impact panels.
OACTE is made up of teacher education faculty from 23 public and private universities and colleges across Oklahoma. Their membership spans from Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Oklahoma.
OACTE focuses on recruiting, preparing, and retaining educators across the state. OACTE ensures that its candidates to become teachers meet the highest educational standards. They also work with K-12 partners to advocate for appropriate compensation and staff support to improve retention rates of classroom teachers. One way that OACTE advocates is by providing research as a resource to publicize the status of public school education and the teacher pipeline in our state.
OACTE’s goal is to support future teachers in the state of Oklahoma.
OACTE is made up of teacher education faculty from 23 public and private universities and colleges across Oklahoma. Their membership spans from Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Oklahoma.
OACTE focuses on recruiting, preparing, and retaining educators across the state. OACTE ensures that its candidates to become teachers meet the highest educational standards. They also work with K-12 partners to advocate for appropriate compensation and staff support to improve retention rates of classroom teachers. One way that OACTE advocates is by providing research as a resource to publicize the status of public school education and the teacher pipeline in our state.
OACTE’s goal is to support future teachers in the state of Oklahoma.
My Brother’s Keeper - Tulsa is a local initiative that prepares young men of color for career opportunities and leadership training through teaching networking and leadership skills. There are over fifty MBK communities nationwide.
There are six milestones on which MBK operates on:
Getting a healthy start and entering school ready to learn.
Reading at grade level by third grade.
Graduating from high school, ready for college and career.
Completing post-secondary education and training.
Successfully entering the workforce.
Keep kids on track and give them second chances.
The My Brother's Keeper initiative was started in 2014 by President Obama to address the challenges that boys and young men of color face in achieving their goals. It aims to provide opportunities for these youth to reach their full potential by creating safe and supportive communities where they feel valued and have clear pathways to success. The My Brother's Keeper Alliance continues this important work.
NBA players like Kevin Durant and Steph Curry have participated in My Brother’s Keeper Success Mentors Initiative. But you don’t have to be a professional basketball player or even the President to be someone’s hero.
You can join in helping students succeed by becoming a mentor at: https://impacttulsa.org/my-brothers-keeper/