Who Is Putting This Event On?

"This week has been a defining moment for me. All activists and young philanthropists should have the opportunity to share in all that Youth Jams have to offer. The YES! Jam I went to inspired and empowered me. It is an amazing concept and a vibrant reality."
- Carolyn Deere, Program Officer, The Rockefeller Foundation

The Youth Jam USA is being coordinated by Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) in partnership with Active Element Foundation,  Grassroots Leadership, and Changemakers Fund.

The Facilitators

Laura Loescher, 31, Changemakers Fund, San Francisco, CA
Laura@changemakersfund.org
Laura Loescher is co-founder and Director of Programs for Changemakers, a foundation that promotes progressive, community-based philanthropy and organizes donors to direct their giving for social change. Her leadership positions include the national advisory board for Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and the Committee on Inclusiveness of the Council on Foundations. Laura is also an advisor to several organizations including Transforming Violence, Bread for the Journey, Added Value, and Spirit in Action. Laura is a cellist and performs with Darrington, a Bay Area rock band.

Ocean Robbins, 28, Youth for Environmental Sanity, Santa Cruz, CA
Ocean@yesworld.org
Ocean founded Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) at 16, and has served in a leadership role with YES! for 12 years. He is co-author of Choices for Our Future, has spoken in person to 200,000 high school students, and has facilitated 29 week-long camps for young activists from 42 countries. At 14, Ocean facilitated global youth summits in Moscow and in Washington, DC, presenting for Mrs. Gorbachev and numerous US Senators in the process. He has served as a board member for Friends of the Earth, The Tide Turning Coalition, Creating Our Future, and EarthSave International.

Jamie Schweser, 29, Active Element, New Orleans, LA
jamieschweser@yahoo.com
Jamie is the coordinator of the Peace Through Justice Donor Circle, a national group of young people with wealth who work together to learn about and fund grassroots social change activism. Jamie also founded Cheddar for Change, a cross-class funding collaborative in New Orleans. When heÕs not working on philanthropy, he tutors kids, sells his self-published books on the street, and works with prison-abolition activists across the South.


Naomi Swinton, 31, Grassroots Leadership, Wilmington, NC
nswinton@igc.org
Naomi is the North Carolina field organizer for Grassroots Leadership, a southern resource organization working for social change. Grassroots Leadership is currently focusing on community-labor campaigns to challenge privatization of prisons and other public services. Naomi has served as a development director, campus trainer, ED of a student-led service learning organization, founding board member, and worked with students from all over the world to develop and implement "Knowledge in Action" community service projects. She has been involved in donor-organizing work over the last six years and in family and personal philanthropy since she was little. She lives in Wilmington, NC with her son and partner. She is also a part-time poet.