Grassroots organizing is a form of advocacy that “relies almost entirely on the general public and not professional lobbyists to contact legislators and other government officials regarding specific issues” (Willis, 2013). Grassroots organizing is important because it empowers the average citizen and people directly affected by an issue to use their skills and resources to help solve the issue themselves. As people on the ground, grassroots activists know exactly how policies are directly impacting the community and can provide valuable insight and solutions to political figures about effective policy change.

Grassroots organizing done in the realm of the school-to-prison pipeline is widely held by a variety of people which signifies how dismantling the pipeline is going to take the labor of everyone, young and old, professional and non-professional. Much of the advocacy is led by youth organizers, teachers, incarcerated people, families of incarcerated people, and parents. Each group is working to raise awareness about the school-to-prison pipeline not only for their immediate communities, but for the state and national government. As much as they practice and believe in the power of on the ground campaigns such as protests and rallies, they also understand that policy change will be needed in order to eradicate practices that force students to come into contact with the criminal justice system.

It is important that all of the various age groups and people doing this work do not think of themselves as better able to effect change than another. The youth are seen as just as important as an educator of 20 years. Intergenerational organizing is a very important component of school-to-prison pipeline organizing as it engages a diverse set of populations and increases its number of fighters. In order to dismantle a system with deep historical roots, they need all the minds, skills, and people they can get for this intense labor.