Building the Leadership of People Most Impacted by Police Suppression, Incarceration and Deportation – Youth both on the Street and Inside Lock-ups, Families of System-Involved Youth, and People Sentenced to Life as Youth
The YJC has made a commitment to promoting and supporting the leadership of youth, families, and people in prison by promoting a voice, vision and action plan for community justice that is developed, led and staffed at all levels by people who have experienced the injustice system first-hand. The project represents one of the nation’s few organizing projects led by young people who have been, or are currently under arrest, on probation, in detention, in prison or on parole or whose parents/guardians, brothers or sisters have been incarcerated for long periods of their lives.
The YJC has worked to recruit youth countywide to join this effort, with a membership of more than 2,000 youth that have received leadership training, legal and political education, as well as families of system-involved youth, people sentenced to Life as youth, liberated lifers, and an organizational base of nearly 100 youth development and violence prevention/intervention organizations.
Several Youth Organizers – Michael Tzintzun, Brandon Jackson and Emanuel Alvarez – wrote and illustrated the following chart to outline the skills and opportunities youth get through organizing:
