Better Future Program, Inc. (BFP)Â is a 501(c)(3) youth-run nonprofit headquartered in Bulbancha (so-called New Orleans, Louisiana) on Chahta Yakni and Chitimacha land. Learn more about Bulbancha's Indigenous history. Our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth.
Since 2016, our team has been dedicated to educating the masses on various academic subjects, mental health, and most importantly, social injustices that affect today's youth. We even offer over 3,000 free novels, movies, podcasts, and more just to fulfill this goal!
<aside> 🎒 Current Major Initiative: Founding global liberation schools, inspired by the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School, Huey P. Newton’s theory of revolutionary intercommunalism, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
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All volunteer positions are available as remote opportunities, meaning you can apply from anywhere in the world! Tap on any of the following open positions to learn more information, scroll to the bottom to learn more about why we use a committee-based structure, and please, apply today! Once a position is full, it’ll be moved to our archives and will not appear on this list until that role is available again.
<aside> 🫂 Note: Due to our horizontal structure and familial culture, all of our positions are fairly fluid! We all help each out and offer advice, sometimes picking up the slack in areas that are not our own. If you’re worried about missing out on the opportunities another position offers, don’t stress! You’ll have the chance to experiment, no worries! At the end of the day though, when tasks are due or questions are asked, we will look to the person with that position’s official title.
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<aside> ❓ Also known as “flat organizational structure,” all BFP volunteers are placed on an equal standing in order to uplift all perspectives and further promote autonomy, fluidity between responsibilities, efficient lines of communication, optimization of all resources within the organization, and thinking outside of the box.
Taking notes from anti-authoritarianism, the ideal that individuals deserve personal freedoms rather than be forced to submit to coercive hierarchies, and democratic confederalism, BFP reinforces its horizontal organizational structure through the usage of “committees.” Each committee (Administrative Staff, Advocacy Committee, Resources Committee, and General Volunteers) forms its own interdependent goals and initiatives to fulfill which are then presented to the entire group during weekly meetings. Due to BFP’s ever-growing size, committees allow every single volunteer to have a voice in policymaking, event coordination, and project management before such plans reach the larger stage for critique, compromise, and voting. And this is where consensus-based decision making comes into play, which tends to negate the tyranny of the majority by ensuring every concern is acknowledged before moving forward! For more detail, Seeds for Change has a great visual for how this decision-making process can work:
Agreement with the proposal = You both support the proposal and are willing to help implement it.
Reservations = You are willing to let the proposal go ahead but want to make the group aware that you aren’t happy. You may even put forth effort into implementing it once your concerns have been acknowledged.
Stand Aside = You want to object, but not block the proposal. You will not help implement this decision, but you are willing to let the group still move forward. You may even like the decision but simply do not have the time or energy to contribute.
Block = You fundamentally disagree with/dislike the proposal and refuse to let the group move forward.
This horizontal organization is also why, at least for the time being, we will remain entirely volunteer-run like many other leftist (particularly abolitionist) grassroots organizations. Being entirely volunteer-run has several advantages: it reflects a commitment to shared principles, empowers grassroots participation, promotes accessibility and inclusivity, resists hierarchies as aforementioned, and allows for flexibility and adaptability. However, there are also, admittedly, challenges: potential burnout among volunteers, limited availability and commitment, potential lack of specialized skills and expertise, high turnover rates and recruitment difficulties, unequal distributions of workload, limited capacity for scaling and impact, and often unclear lines of accountability in task completion.
Striking a balance between the benefits of volunteerism and addressing these challenges is crucial for the success and longevity of organizations like BFP! That’s why we need your help in continuously assessing our successes and failures, remaining honest about your interactions with our organization!
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Last updated: October 22, 2023
