TeensForAll is a completely teen-run organization which was founded by Xavier Ramirez a 10th Grader at Buena High School in September of 2020. Xavier said he started TeensForAll because he wanted to create an inclusive environment where teens no matter race, religion, sexuality, gender, or beliefs has a place to represent themselves, find new friends, make change, and gain valuable experience that can help them later down in the road in any career they choose.
TeensForAll discusses social justice, female empowerment, mental health awareness, and climate awareness. The TeensForAll team chose these issues in specific because they feel like these issues are beneficial for teenagers to gain more knowledge about. While TeensForAll is based in Ventura California, members come from all over the U.S. & Canada.
TeensForAll is run by a Cabinet and has seven committees. The seven committees are: Operations, Communications, Partnerships, Outreach, Design, Finance, and Journalism. Each of TeensForAll’s committees have one designated Committee Head and they work symbiotically with each other.
Operations handles all of the internal affairs and resource distribution. Communications handles all of TeensForAll’s social media and releases press releases. Partnerships Committee finds organizations, collaborations, and opportunities that allow TeensForAll to grow. Outreach plans and coordinates all of TeensForAll’s events and makes sure all of the events are planned out thoroughly and have all needed resources. The Design Committee creates all of the images utilized by TeensForAll. The Finance Committee develops a budget and fundraisers for TeensForAll. Finally, Journalism is all of TeensForAll’s writers and makes up the bulk of TeensForAll’s members.
All of these Committees work together through TeensForAll’s government style. For example, if the Outreach Committee needs to plan an event they would contact the Operations Committee to see if the project is approved. If approved, the project would then move to Finance for a budget proposal, then to Design to create promotional images, and then it would be sent to Communications to promote. This is just one example of how the TeensForAll structure of government works. The TeensForAll Cabinet which is made up of all the Committee Heads vote on any initiatives for TeensForAll to implement or create. TeensForAll currently has four blogs which are: TeensForChange, TeensForNature, TeensForWomen, and TeensForHope.
All of TeensForAll’s blogs go through an editor and are approved by a democratically elected Speaker and every week, 2-3 blogs are posted. TeensForAll also has many interactive aspects on their website such as a bi-monthly podcast where members discuss events occurring in the world. There is also a pen-pal finder where teenagers can fill out a form and find a new friend amidst the pandemic. Some of TeensForAll’s current initiatives include: Partnering with organizations, tutoring elementary school students, organizing a beach and park clean up day, and writing to frontline healthcare workers and elders in retirement homes.
Teens can join TeensForAll to become a part of a team, gain experience working both independently and with others, building leadership skills, develop an understanding for topics discussed, and be able to be a part of something meaningful. You can find all of their applications on the “Join Us” section of their website. TeensForAll also has an interview process to simulate applying for a job. However, it is not as nerve wracking as applying for a job. After applying, teens will be contacted after they apply to sign up for an interview time. Similar to a job interview our interviewers ask a set of questions.
The TeensForAll team welcomes any and all teens to apply to join and check their website which can be found at www.teensforall.org and their social medias of Tiktok and Instagram are: _teensforall_.
