Good Trouble
Youth Saving Learning TM
Embedded Files
Good Trouble is a youth-led movement advancing nonviolent organizing as a daily practice of democracy. We work to ensure every young person experiences belonging, purpose, and power — and that schools and communities become places where youth can lead, influence decisions, and shape a better future.
We are guided by three core beliefs:
Belief #1
Belief #1
Young people are a key source to the solution. They are not the problem.
Belief #2
Belief #2
Everyone has a unique gift to give. We, the public, need these gifts now more than ever.
Belief #3
Belief #3
We must put aces in places – to discover, honor and position youth gifts to solve real-world problems.
Continuing the Legacy
Continuing the Legacy
Rooted in the tradition of John Lewis and the six steps of nonviolent action, our three pillar Youth Saving Learning model modernizes this legacy for today’s schools and communities.
Listen Deeply
Authentic student-led focus groups that generate actionable insight.
Rooted in Informatio Education
Make Meaning Together
Young people and adults make meaning together and commit to change.
Rooted in Information & Education
Take Action That Matters
Young people and adults act together to shift practices, culture, and policy.
Rooted in Direct Action & Reconciliation
Make Good Trouble
Through Good Trouble Academy, young people learn the history, the principles & skills to lead our Youth Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Rooted in the legacy of John Lewis
OUR APPROACH
Good Trouble’s unique gift is activating youth-led nonviolent organizing to transform schools, communities, and democracy itself. The people closest to a problem are the ones who actually understand it, and that they deserve the space and the tools to act on what they know.
The Student Feedback Tool is how we put that belief into practice with schools and districts. It's a simple cycle, Listen Deeply, Make Meaning Together, Take Action That Matters, built to turn student voice into strategic intelligence instead of a survey that goes nowhere. Better decisions start with the people living inside the system, not around them. ›› Learn more about our Student Feedback Tool ››
Good Trouble Academy is where we hand that same belief to young people directly. Once a month, grounded in history, principles, and real organizing skills, young people learn to do for their own communities what the Feedback Tool does for schools: listen, find the pattern, act. ›› Check out The Academy ››
This is how young people reshape the systems around them — and help democracy become something we practice, not just promise.
OUR IMPACT
Since 2022, over 2000 young people and community members have joined the Good Trouble network.
Together, we have:
Shaped legislation expanding teacher and student learning pathways at the MN Legislature via public testimony and legislator meetings,
Convened three community forums engaging 400 participants, and
Designed and tested a breakthrough youth-facilitated qualitative student feedback process to be scaled statewide.
Through community forums and youth-led, intergenerational action, we’re helping schools become places where democracy is practiced, not just taught. By 2030, we aim to impact over 300,000 high school students — building the conditions for a generation and their allies to belong, find purpose, and lead with power.
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