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Our Mission & Vision

The Jakara Movement is a grassroots community-building organization working to empower, educate, and organize Punjabi Sikhs, and other marginalized communities; to advance their health, education, and economic, social, and political power. We strive to create a Gurmat-inspired community, rooted in the struggle of our foremothers and forefathers, committed to gender equality and caste abolitionism to develop powerful, informed, and organized youth leadership, locally-rooted residential power, and community capacity that will be a key partner in building a better future for all.

The Jakara Movement is a grassroots community-building organization. We are forging a Gurmat inspired generation through creative leadership development, community organizing, and social activism.

Together, We Are a Movement 

The idea of Jakara was born in the Spring of 1999 at the Sikh Renaissance Conference. A group of friends from Fresno attended the conference and while finding it informative, also found it lacking. The conference concentrated on theological underpinnings, but seemed dominated by adults without a genuine youth voice. At the end of each conference day, the friends got together and lingered over the strengths and weaknesses of the day’s events. We thought we could do a better job.

It was then during a lunch on January 1, 2000 that we resurrected the idea. Ideas for topics were written and venues discussed, however it would take a push from a critical supporter during spring break and her booking of the initial venues that launched the progress towards Jakara 2000. With help, a website was created and on June 22, 2000 we proclaimed our mission as “A call to the next generation of Sikhs from all places, backgrounds, and points of view to reflect on our past and prepare for our future.”

Although we have undergone many changes since Jakara 2000, years later we still hold true to our original declaration. We are no longer merely a conference, we have evolved into a movement.  

The Jakara Movement, born in 2005, is an institution for the recruitment and training of volunteers and a hub for the Sikh Californian youth. With a focus on the interstices of education, health, gender, and social justice, the Jakara Movement inclusively engages large sections of the Sikh youth in various projects to strengthen their identity and consciousness as Sikhs, foster education through service-learning, and inspire activism and volunteerism within the greater Qaum.  Members of the Jakara family have helped organize a community radio station, camps for primary and secondary students, as well as community revival and educational forums.

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Our Programs

Jakara Movement has inspiring programs that are empowering Sikh-American youth and fostering positive change in our community:

1. Community Building Initiatives: Jakara Movement organizes Family Health Days, gurdwara cleanups, sports tournaments, Sikh Day competitions, care packages for the homeless, as well as lectures & work on Kaur voices, voter education, immigration & our rights, education justice & equity, etc.

2. Conferences: Jakara Movement hosts a number of conferences for young Sikhs including the following:

• Lalkaar Collegiate Conference creates a platform where thought provoking conversations take place on issues affecting the Sikh community.
• Sikholars brings together advanced graduate students working on a variety of subjects related to the study of Sikhs.
• Nishaan exposes high school students to higher education, leadership development, and social justice through a Sikh lens.

3. Jakara Fellowships: Open to high school, college, and graduate students, this one-year interdisciplinary program focuses on projects that address the unmet needs of the Sikh community and are centered around direct services. 

4. Leadership Initiatives: Soojh is an experience in service, advocacy, learning, and spiritual reflection for college students during their breaks. The Bhujangan / Bhujangi Academies are weeklong camps for teenage boys and girls to develop themselves and create a sense of community, while learning life skills. The one-day Juniors Camp engages Sikh children on a topic central to the Sikhi.

5. Paaras Sikh Youth Center: In Fresno, CA, Jakara Movement operates the only youth center aimed at Sikh youth, where they partake in tutoring services, workshops, classes, movie nights, and connect with their sangat.

6. Sikhiya Counseling Initiative: Provides support & mentoring for individuals applying to undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools utilizing a network of successful Sikhs.

7. Sikh Honors and Service Society: A statewide program to promote and honor service, leadership, and academic excellence among Sikh high school students.

8. Jakara Movement Chapter (JMC): Open to all Sikh college students in Californiais, JMC aims to build a Sikh political campus voice through strengthening the power of Sikh and disenfranchised communities via civic engagement, strategic grassroots mobilization, and awakening based on vichaar (reflection), karam (action), seva, sangat, simran, shaheedi, and santok.

We hope you join us and help us make future history for our community, by bringing together Sikhs in the spirit of seva, sangat, simran, shaheedi, and santokh.  Together, we can do amazing things; together, we are the movement.

Learn more at www.jakara.org