ABC7 News Bay Area | Oakland youth advocate turns experiences to help create change for her community
For Torrian Coats, advocacy started before she even had a name for it. While attending Skyline High School, she experienced lockdowns, shootings and other acts of violence on campus. Those situations motivated her to look for ways to make a difference in her community.
That led her to Youth Alive!’s Teens on Target program, a youth violence prevention group that gives Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) high school students a space to talk about violence in their communities, share their experiences and develop their leadership skills.
“In high school, when I joined Teens on Target, and I fell in love with doing more advocacy,” Coats said. “I realized, oh, I’ve been doing this for a while… I want to keep doing this. And that’s how I’m here today."
Her advocacy has extended beyond the classroom and into the broader community. Coats has traveled to the California State Capitol to advocate for issues affecting young people and has participated in advocacy efforts with Moms Demand Action, bringing her perspective as a young person impacted by community violence to the conversation.
Through Teens on Target (TNT), she has grown from a high school freshman into a youth advocate who now helps engage and mentor other young people.