One of the grassroots organizations that is handling this crisis is UrbEd. UrbEd is a student-led non-profit that advocates for public schools in Philadelphia to be “fully-funded, safe, and healthy” (UrbEd, 2020). They want to put student voices back into policy decisions and advocate to be a large stakeholder in education (UrbEd, 2020). The organization was founded in 2016 and hopes to be a part of fully reforming the Philadelphia Public School system (UrbEd, 2020). They have four major pillars to reforming school: changing school boards to have student members, redesigning school buildings, rethinking disciplinary practices and the role of police officers in schools, and making schools more diverse with students and teachers (UrbEd, 2020). The biggest piece is their campaign to reimagine school health and safety, particularly how it ties in to the current defunding of the police movement after public displays of racism in police forces. 

In their quest to reimagine school safety, they hope to address four main demands: reimagining school security, redistributing the school resource officer budget, transparency and oversight, and wider staff training (UrbEd). The foundation of these demands is to continue to end zero-tolerance policies, remove school officers and redistribute their budget, have an independent body investigate school politics and safety, and train staff to be more equipped for restorative practices (UrbEd). UrbEd has been a part of a larger movement to address racism in Philadelphia schools. Recently, African American studies became a graduation requirement for public school students (Anderson and Cohen, 2017). This provides educators and students an opportunity to teach and amplify voices of color in the classroom. They have successfully been a part of removing the School Reform Commission and implementing student-board representatives (UrbEd). The next step is to allow the student-board representatives to have a vote on policy decisions (UrbEd). They have also encouraged education within the community of Philadelphia by screening Just Mercy for students (UrbEd). They have had a large role and voice to address education disparities and help promote education for all. While they may be smaller than other Philadelphia grassroots organizations, such as Philadelphia Student Union, their voice is mighty. 

Source: https://www.urbedadvocates.org/