ANTI-SINGLE ISSUE,
YOUTH-LED ACTIVISM.
Born out of animal rights activism and committed to liberation of people, animals, and planet.
our origins
It was 2016, and it was fate. A scrappy group of young activists met aging-Goth, lawyer-turned-humane-educator, Claire Howe, as she facilitated animal rights clubs at our high schools in Portland, Oregon. After hitting up the Animal Rights Conference in LA and realizing there was NOTHING for folks our age, we said “f*ck it, we’ll do it ourselves!” and Youth for the Voiceless, a broad-based animal rights organization for young activists, was born. With the gracious support of HEART, we spent the next couple of years on the ground advocating for animal liberation.
By 2018, we’d made some pretty major realizations and knew it was time to spread our wings (pun always intended). Relaunching as The Raven Corps, we evolved into a consistent anti-oppression youth activist organization, building a movement of young people who reject a single-issue approach and meaningfully embrace a “liberation-for-ALL” ethos.
We’ve come a long way, and our work has only just begun.
The Raven Corps is a youth-centered movement of activists devoted to building a just and sustainable future for ALL animals and our natural world.
We take action through a consistent anti-oppression lens and trust that we can achieve liberation for ALL if we join forces and strike at the roots of oppression.
We organize “Operations” that best serve the collective need for justice, compassion, and sustainability. Through it all, we support each other—growing as leaders, organizers, and change-makers in welcoming, open-minded spaces. And we don’t forget to have fun.
OUR PILLARS
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We do not organize from the top down, and we are an authentically youth-led movement in action and ideas. Ravens work alongside The Conspiracy (our version of an “HQ”) to organize, plan, and implement activist Operations.
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The world’s f*cked up, and we’re living within systems of oppression designed without our input by the generations that came before us. It’s time we unlearn, relearn, dismantle, and rebuild so that everyone—human and nonhuman alike—has a chance at true equity.
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We care deeply about the world, about each other, and we believe in the capacity to create change through empathy and kindness. We’ve built supportive spaces that encourage open dialogue, and we uplift one another to grow into our activist wings.
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We firmly believe that community is a form of resistance and one of our greatest tools in the fight against oppression. We fortify The Corps by supporting each other as human-beings, not just activists. A strong community is a powerful one.
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We believe in collective, grassroots action.
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We sustain ourselves with joy, and our community is built on camaraderie and friendship. We host events, we watch movies, sometimes we just talk about whatever. We want a better world, and we’re not afraid to work for it, but we sure as shit deserve to have fun at the same time. Joy is resistance.
OUR HQ
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CLAIRE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER
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ONYX
CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR
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CAMI
COMMUNITY COORDINATOR
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CHLOE
ART DIRECTOR
“The Raven Corps has given me the opportunity to explore my strengths in leadership and activism. I am grateful for this, as I previously did not have much confidence in my opinions or capabilities as an activist and a leader. Now, I know not only that my voice has power, but that there are people who will listen to it.”
— Serena Holland, Lead Raven for The Feed
“Being a part of The Raven Corps was like being immediately accepted into an incredibly warm and understanding community that placed collective liberation at the center of all actions and conversations. This was enormously grounding for me and a continued source of optimism being around fellow passionate activists amidst a world that can often feel dark and daunting.
- Kate Downing, 2023 Outreach Lead
“It’s important to support an organization like TRC that is youth led because it helps young people reclaim space that everyone else is telling them isn’t theirs.”
-Anata Tran, Growing Beyond the Recipe Lead Raven 2021/2022
“I loved my experience with Z2B as it opened my eyes to the impact of open conversations. People from across the political spectrum want to work together and, given the opportunity, can have civil conversations. Facilitating Z2B helped me articulate my thoughts better to people who might not know my viewpoint, but more importantly helped me listen to viewpoints I don’t agree with.”
— Omar, 2020/2021 Z2B Lead Raven
“The Raven Corps is not only valuable, but imperative to the society that we live in today. By giving youth a voice to speak out about issues that are detrimental to our future as a society and planet, we break the generational issue of youth erasure and ensure a more equitable, world for future generations to occupy as well.”
- Kimi Herrera, Raven since since 2019