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’re an expanding online community with roots in Portland, OR. 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 Values
Youth-led
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.
Sustainable
We care deeply about creating a sustainable world for humans, all other animals, and the environment itself. We approach sustainability knowing that the needs of communities may differ, but that we all have the power and urgent need to take collective action.
Anti-oppression
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.
Future Driven
We did not sign up for the state of this world. We understand the importance of taking immediate action to change the trajectory of our futures, and we don’t mess around when it comes to making our voices heard.
Compassionate
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.
Community-Minded
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.
Creative
We’re not afraid to dream of a world beyond oppression, and we believe that everyone has something important to bring to the table. We think outside the box to find inventive solutions to our biggest problems, and then we take action that is authentic to us.
Fun
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.
Our Story
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 literally 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.
We’re on a mission and making big moves! We put our values into action by implementing advocacy Operations in our communities and beyond.
