Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute Archives - Dignity and Power Now

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Join DPN For Our 2019 Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute Graduation

 

Join DPN as we celebrate the 2019 graduates of our Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute on Wednesday, April 3 at 10 a.m. at Central High School.

The Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute (DRLI) is a leadership development program geared towards high school aged youth and led by formerly incarcerated organizers. DRLI is dedicated to building the leadership, capacity, and skillset of students affected by mass incarceration and youth survivors of deputy abuse. DRLI prioritizes building the leadership of those directly affected because they have the most insight and the highest stakes invested in changing the system. Communities most affected by sheriff abuse and incarceration – namely Black and Brown communities – have long histories of fighting to end state violence and the DRLI program not only teaches that history but challenges students to participate in the current moment.

DRLI is rooted in Dignity and Power Now’s project the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence and youth members are encouraged to participate in strategizing and give public comment at Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission meetings. The current 6-week DRLI curriculum covers topics including know your rights, the history of Los Angeles neighborhoods and rebellions, mapping elected officials, how to build local power, divestment from jails and reinvestment in communities, and an art and social justice field trip.

Learn more here.

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Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute: Youth on the Rise

The Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute (DRLI) is close to my heart because of two main reasons:

1. At the age of 19 I was arrested for a murder I did not commit.
2. The way I introduce myself and the program to our students each year.

As an introduction I ask the new students their names and their ages. After I tell them my story I go right back to that first introduction and let them know why I asked: to show them that I was close to their age when I was sent away to do a life sentence for a murder I didn’t commit. I show the DRLI students that I am just now able to speak to them in person at 52 years old. This introduction tends to get their attention.

Once I have their attention I share that I now understand the way I became so subjected to the system. I didn’t know the laws or the depths of the neglect in my community and surrounding areas, and at the same time I became known to the police as a gang member. Nevertheless, I didn’t murder anyone. So I tie the 7-week DRLI curriculum into my personal life story and the personal stories of DRLI students, which include subjects like mass incarceration, police violence, and even fellow students being choked in classrooms by law enforcement officials.

As part of the institute students get a chance to learn through our Know Your Rights training, and to use the skills learned whether it be on campus or at home. These are some smart students! They even have a few campaigns of their own including Students Not Suspects and Students Deserve – fights that strive for decreased policing at schools across Los Angeles.

That’s why I enjoy working with the youth. A lot of them want to know better so they can do better, in particular by understanding their rights. The police profile people when they are looking for a suspect and the person who is arrested and charged might be them even if they did not commit the crime, as was true in my case. When young people are impacted by major stressors such as racism and poverty they can sometimes end up participating in harmful behavior. While DPN believes we must be accountable for harm caused we also believe that the system also needs to be accountable for the environments it creates.

Youth want to understand how campaign work for justice is done. In addition to in-classroom learning, our DRLI students receive the opportunity to intern with DPN staff and participate in LA County Board of Supervisors meetings, Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission meetings, Freedom Harvest wellness events, and supporting our Reform L.A. Jails ballot initiative.

Are you a teacher interested in hosting or a student interested in participating in DRLI? Contact me!

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Reinvesting in the Dignity of Our Communities

I have spent more than half my life as a community organizer advocating for change in the prison system in Los Angeles. My first brush with the system was as a child experiencing my father cycling in and out of the system until he passed away in 2009. Despite witnessing my father’s struggles, I didn’t really become aware of the depth of injustice in the system until I was 16.

My brother, who is four years older, was arrested after taking our mother’s car joy-riding. He was incarcerated in an LA County jail, where he was almost killed by the sheriffs. They beat him. They tortured him. They brutalized him. The abuse of my brother became my awakening. I was compelled to take action. I sought out mentors, established a network, and over a period of 11 years I learned the craft of community organizing.

In 2011 I came across an 86-page report prepared by the ACLU for their lawsuit against the LA Sheriff’s Department. Using this report I created STAINED: An Intimate Portrayal of State Violence, a piece of performance art designed to bring community attention to state violence. During a year of touring I connected with many others who were also driven to take action. We built the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence.

At our onset we were the only group in the community advocating for civilian oversight. We gave testimony, rallied the people and secured two county supervisors votes. It quickly became clear that the Coalition was not enough. The issues extended beyond the conditions in the jails. We needed more resources to confront the increasing problem of violence against the Black community as a whole.

Expanding the organizational, psychological, and motivational capacity to end state violence meant developing five other projects that used art, research, resilience practices, and leadership development as center pieces in the work. Dignity and Power Now was created to be the primary organization for a multifaceted, trauma informed, healing, motivated movement to end state violence and mass incarceration.

Where are we now? We have achieved quite a bit, but more is needed. We continue to work to affect change. Dignity and Power Now demands a civilian oversight commission with power, mental health diversion, and a halt to the $3.5 billion jail plan. Black, Brown, and poor communities need a Los Angeles that will fight for our health and well-being instead of our incarceration.

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I am proud of the work I have been able to lead in Los Angeles. I am even prouder of the team that has grown out of fighting for greater accountability for the sheriff’s department. Dignity and Power Now currently has a core leadership team made up of staff and volunteer members who have worked diligently to tell their stories and fight for the people they love. This team has been resilient against all odds. I have been honored to work with this team for the last 3 years and I am confident that they are the leaders Los Angeles County needs. As for me, I am transitioning from Executive Director of Dignity and Power Now and will be developing and revamping our Board.

As American democracy is continuously compromised by law enforcement with very few checks and balances, I feel compelled to support a national movement that is focused on pushing for local government to reinvest in the dignity of communities of color, black communities in particular. No movement is ahistorical. No movement is without strategy. When folks in Ferguson made the choice to demand accountability, and when local law enforcement’s response was to tear gas and rubber bullet a community that was grieving, I understood that there needed to be an intervention in the discussion around state violence.

Mostly, state violence and mass incarceration are seen as two separate issues. I argue that they are two sides of the same coin. The police arrest people who end up in jail or prison. The amount of funding that has been poured into law enforcement, jails, and prisons far exceeds the lack of investment made into black and poor communities. We can’t compartmentalize one apparatus from the other. They interact with one another. They support one another. We can’t have jails without police and police without jails. In the last nine months one thing has become clear. We need a national network that will help support victims and survivors of state violence. This network will build the capacity and support the leadership of victims and survivors. This will change the culture of America’s relationship to law enforcement and jails/prisons.

My new venture: Truth and Reinvestment Director at Ella Baker Center for Human Rights! In my position I will work to build the capacity of communities who are affected by state and law enforcement violence. We will support them in responding quickly and in a coordinated way through the creation of an online and on the ground support network. We will provide toolkits and a registry of local and national resources through the ACLU of Southern California’s mobile app. We will develop a web based platform for communities to better utilize tech tools for our agency and to change policy. I am excited about this powerful work and ready to push for greater accountability and transparency for law enforcement across the country. Follow my journey on twitter @osope and on Instagram @love_cullors.

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St. Anne’s Interns Review Working Group Meeting

The women from St Anne’s have been relentlessly making phone calls and attending working group meetings in support of a civilian review board with power. Here they offer their reviews on what it felt like to participate in the working group process.

“My experience was very nervous today because I chose to speak about my oldest brother and why he is doing time. I feel great that they felt my story was a great story and decided not to keep the vote going on with having the nine-member board. What I also liked is that this time they actually seem to be interested in what we were talking about and just listened and didn’t have any bad feedback. Then what I didn’t like is that it was really frustrating that they were on the same vote for an hour and still weren’t satisfied with what they decided on. I also thought that was very confusing.” – Tonisha Jackson

“I just feel that they didn’t care about the community. The community has to be there because they are the ones watching deaths, shootings, and abuse from the sheriff’s department. They are never going to understand the community because they re not in the community’s shoes. On a civilian review board, some people on the working group didn’t pay attention to the title of the discussion today.” – Ana Angeles

“There was a lot of discussion back and forth over two words, ‘and’ and ‘or.’ I also spoke for the first time and I was nervous. My hands were cold after I spoke. There are a lot of options about the nine-member board. It is hard to pay attention because most of the time they ignore what the people say. The community is what matters. The public should be heard because we are affected, not the people up on the board. Because why? White people almost get away with everything. The black and brown community is the one getting affected. The right thing is to stop sheriff violence. Get your voice heard to make sure the violence is stopped.” – Diana Villeda

“I feel they are not really trying to give us what we want as far as the nine-member board. I feel that they’re not trying to let us be involved as far as having to say to pick four members that have been directly impacted. I feel they want all kinds of law enforcement and lawyers. That they all know and keep everything private and away from the people that care. I feel like they spent our time talking about choosing words and fixing grammar when they need to get straight to the point.” – Shaerice Brooks

“Why did they take up so much time deciding on one little word such as ‘and’ or ‘or’? It shouldn’t take rocket science to figure that out. They also want to get the sheriff department involved, why? It’s not about them and what they want shouldn’t matter. I matter. The people that have witnessed and experienced for themselves matter. It’s so stressful to try and make them understand. If it takes to go up there, to call, and to show up to their doorstep, then so be it. I’m a person who knows what I want. We know what we want. We want change. Because at the end of the day, we matter.” – Jasmine Brandon

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