New nonprofit, Good Trouble, forges healthier paths for struggling youth

As teenagers, Jose Perez and Julian Spencer ran into trouble with the law. Their schools, they say, offered little help or guidance.

As adults, they’re working to change that for young people coming after them.

Lack of support and mentorship in school contributed to their encounters with the criminal justice system, they say. Perez was a young adult and Spencer a teenager when they got into trouble.

Now Perez, 24, and Spencer, 20, have formed their own movement to address issues affecting youth in schools, particularly those of color.

They founded Good Trouble, which launched this year and is working to formally become a nonprofit organization. The name is inspired by a quote from the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who recommended getting into “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Education is “the civil rights issue of our time,” Perez and Spencer say. They are working alongside others to change the educational system to help children meet developmental needs in the classroom.

Good Trouble’s beginnings

Jose Perez grew up on the East Side of St. Paul. His parents immigrated to the United States from Guatemala and El Salvador.

He has dyslexia, and struggled in school. But he managed to graduate from high school. Afterward, though, he found himself spending time with old social circles and falling back into bad habits.

Several years ago, he was pulled over, didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance, and was found to be distributing THC, the psychoactive substance in cannabis. He was taken to the Washington County jail, and was held for about two days.

“You can only get more angry when you’re in there, you can only get more isolated, you can only get more traumatized,” he said.

When he heard he might be charged with a felony, which would mean he wouldn’t be able to vote in the 2020 presidential election, he realized the gravity of the situation. Perez was ultimately not charged with a crime for the incident, but when he was released, he took political science classes at Saint Paul College and started to get involved in policy work.

Julian Spencer, who is from north Minneapolis, encountered the justice system as a child. Twice expelled from his middle school, he was first arrested for assault after a school yard game went wrong. He said he felt like he was pushed from the classroom to the courtroom.

Spencer said he didn’t find support when he was in school, and turned to the streets, where he found companionship and a sense of belonging. He sold drugs, and hung out with other lawbreakers. He spent time in juvenile detention, which he said had no rehabilitative benefits for him.

“At that point in time, I felt like I was pushed out of my community. And that a classroom was not the right place for me,” Spencer said.

Many youth have similar experiences, he said.

When Spencer became a father at age 16, everything changed, he said. He realized he wasn’t living the life that he wanted.

He was motivated to go to school so he could play baseball. He eventually graduated from an alternative high school.

“I was so caught up in the day to day, and I really do think that’s life for a lot of young people growing up on the North Side of Minneapolis, really living in survival mode with those generational cycles of trauma,” Spencer said.

Before Good Trouble, Perez led a group called Bridgemakers, a nonprofit focused on youth empowerment. In 2022, he met Spencer, who was participating in Bridgemakers programming as a high school student.

The two testified at the Minnesota Legislature about issues they were passionate about, such as making the pathway to teacher licensures more accessible.

Their main focus: improving Minnesota’s education system so historically disadvantaged young people could be more successful.

A deep look into the current system

Over 18 months, Perez and Spencer worked alongside other justice-seeking youth on a report that looked deep into the state of education and came up with recommendations for stakeholders.

They hosted more than 75 conversations and held multiple public meetings with hundreds of young people and education and justice system stakeholders.

Their report found that most schools don’t provide ways for youth facing adversity to develop healthy senses of purpose, independence and community. Support is especially lacking in middle school years, which they call a “crucial” time.

The report said that while schools in Minnesota are doing more work around diversion and providing pathways to alternatives to incarceration, more needs to be done to prevent troubled young people from encountering the system in the first place.

Spencer said they believe that the education system is too focused on benchmarks like test scores and grades, and that systemic changes are needed.

“​There’s a lot more skills in our young people than just how good they do on standardized tests,” he said.

They also believe the teacher workforce in Minnesota needs to be more diverse. Growing up in diverse neighborhoods, Perez and Spencer didn’t see many teachers who reflected their community. The majority of teachers are also women, and many young men need more strong male role models, they said.

According to the most recently available data, only about 6 percent of public school teachers in Minnesota are people of color. But nearly 40 percent of students are.

Expanding their reach

Good Trouble has gained the attention of justice system officials in the Twin Cities. Last year, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi wrote a letter in support of the group’s recommendations for changes in the state’s education system.

This past February, the group hosted a panel discussion on youth justice with Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarity and Liz Ryan, who oversees the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Moriarty and Ryan championed Good Trouble at the panel discussion, and emphasized the importance of having young people at the forefront of efforts to improve juvenile justice and education.

“I can try to understand what it’s like to be a young person, but I will never really know until I listen,” Moriarty said at the panel discussion.

An ‘intergenerational movement’

Perez and Spencer work closely with other young people, like Nesha Partee. Perez met Partee when they were both students at the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, a school they say can serve as an example for others in the state.

Partee had a troubled home life and wasn’t in good physical or mental health when she came to the school. But the school changed her life, she said, and she wants other young people to have the same opportunities she did.

“I want to make the experience more accessible for everyone and not just because we got lucky,” she said.

While Good Trouble is youth-led, it also works alongside adults who have connections to the education system.

Thersea Neal, a retired educator, is co-chair of Good Trouble’s board of directors. She worked in St. Paul schools for more than 40 years, most recently as principal at Como Park High School.

She said much can be learned from the experiences that Perez and Spencer had in school.

“We can recognize what was missing in their experience, so that what they encountered is something that can be eventually dismantled,” she said.

Launch year plans

Good Trouble is working to build relationships with schools, and pilot their strategies to make changes to the education system. So far, it’s partnered with schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as in rural areas such as Pelican Rapids.

At the High School for Recording Arts, Perez and Spencer mentor students and offer feedback to faculty on policies and initiatives.

“We’re able to bring that collective energy and knowledge to really have an impact and positive change,” said the school’s executive director, Tony Simmons.

Good Trouble is also working with the High School for Recording Arts to create a charter middle school, which they hope will launch next year.

Steven Rippe, a consultant and director of EdVisions’ Hope Survey, which does engagement work with schools across the country, is working on the middle school project. He said many youth become unmotivated by the time they reach ninth grade.

“If we can get to these kids sooner, then we’re more likely able to keep their dreams and passions alive, and if we did that, what kind of community would we create?” he said.

Good Trouble hosts what it calls “troublemaker convenings” with young people to provide mentorship.

Working with youth who have faced adversity can be daunting, they said.

“That means you have to be big boys and digest your traumas and learn how to help other young people be able to do that. And it can get heavy,” Perez said.

One morning in April, Perez, Spencer and other youth involved in Good Trouble joined dozens of others at the Minnesota State Capitol for a literacy rally. Afterward, they met with legislators to talk about bills they are passionate about.

“We want education to invest in our young people, like we’ve been invested within our communities,” Spencer said. “And that’s how we want education to reflect our society.”

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