About Us
Our History
Providence Student Union formed in early 2010, when students from Hope High School joined together to defend their school’s popular block schedule. These young leaders formed PSU’s first chapter—Hope United—and embarked on a series of campaigns to improve their school. Soon afterward, the group began organizing chapters in additional high schools across Providence, all working together to advance student rights and win an education system that treats students with dignity and respect.
» Learn more about our past and current campaigns on our Campaigns and Media Coverage pages.
Our Mission
Providence Student Union builds student power to improve our education and well-being. We envision a true “union for students” that increases young people’s collective power and ensures our frustrations, demands, and dreams are heard. At PSU, young people grow as leaders, organizers, and advocates for justice in all forms, today and throughout their lives.
Why We Organize
Providence students are fed up with schools that don’t work for them:
Students face racist and arbitrary discipline practices, including police violence in and out of school.
Students have no structural role in designing their own education.
Rhode Island has decided again and again that students have no guaranteed “right to education.”
Students’ buildings are in disrepair, with no satisfying food and clean water available.
At the same time, national institutions have silenced and ignored young people’s voices for decades. But there is hope—young people across the country are rising up to win a better future that celebrates our diverse backgrounds, renews our earth’s climate, and affirms the dignity of all life.
Students in Providence are rising up, too. Providence youth are organizing every day to win a future where young people are treated with respect. Join us!
Join Our Movement
Providence Student Union is committed to improving Providence schools and building youth power everywhere. But we can’t do this work without your help: