BOP Youth Travel to Los Angeles for Exchange with Youth Justice Coalition
In February, the Black Organizing Project’s youth members traveled to Los Angeles for an exchange with members of the Youth Justice Coalition, a Los Angeles-based youth group working to build a youth, family and prisoner-led movement to challenge race, gender and class inequality in LA County and California’s juvenile injustice systems. Youth members from BOP attended a hearing with YJC members to oppose a local gang injunction.
In addition to attending the hearing, BOP youth received a guided tour of Los Angeles by YJC. They visited three LA neighborhoods whose history shed light on the root causes of gang injunctions. According to YJC, gang injunctions link to a history of violence towards communities of color and policies that push out communities of color in the name of protecting white neighborhoods.
Most importantly, the trip gave BOP and YJC youth an opportunity to connect, explore and dialogue around what it means to create justice for youth and to combat the disparate impact of the criminal injustice system on Black and Brown youth. Check out the video below to hear from BOP youth on their experience. Plus, scroll down for pictures and tweets from the trip!
Special thank you to Public Interest Projects for their generous support through the Just and Fair Schools Fund to make this trip possible.
[vimeo id=”86555949″ width=”600″ height=”350″]
@YouthjusticeLA BOP & YJC learning about the root causes to gang injunctions (LA China town) pic.twitter.com/QGJL4ZeJ9O
— BOP (@BlackOrgProject) January 31, 2014
Just finished up at the Chuco’s Justice Center @YouthJusticeLA #educationnotincarceration #youthpower pic.twitter.com/sGKerDDtFT
— BOP (@BlackOrgProject) February 1, 2014
From tha Bay to LA Black and Brown ALL DAY “@BlackOrgProject Building a movement #blackandbrownpower @YouthJusticeLA pic.twitter.com/Occa3pnm9X”
— YouthJustice (@YouthJusticeLA) February 3, 2014
