Forever Rooted: Leadership, Storytelling, and Skill-Building

Forever Rooted is a program for formerly incarcerated people where we meet once a week for seven weeks and go over a curriculum that consists of leadership building, storytelling, and facilitation skill-building and encourages folks to become active in their own communities.

We understand that fresh out of prison people are waiting on that first call to say that they’re hired, which makes participating in a voluntary program like Forever Rooted challenging. Our recent cohort began with a nice number of participants and ended with around the same number of people, finishing strong. Through perseverance and dedication every person that graduated this year didn’t miss a single day! Shoutout to our previous graduates, Todd and Al, for showing up and supporting our most recent group.

Forever Rooted Spring 2018 Graduation

This last Forever Rooted cohort was active in our signature gathering events where we gathered signatures to put the Reform L.A. Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative on the ballot in 2020. Among other things, the initiative if passed would grant subpoena power to the L.A. Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Forever Rooted participants were also active at our monthly Member Engagement Meetings and our Freedom Harvest summer pop-up arts and wellness events that take place outside the county jails. This group of folks was great and I was also blessed with a great intern. Grateful for everyone that helped my work and the program flourish!

T.E.A.M. work! (Together Everyone Achieves More)

If you have recently gotten out of prison and want to participate in our next free Forever Rooted program please contact me here.

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Civilian Oversight Commissioners Announced! (Where’s Patrisse?)

On November 1st the Los Angeles County Supervisors officially announced the nine people who will be serving on the Civilian Oversight Commission.

Appointed individually by Solis, Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl, Knabe, and Antonovich, in that order:

Hernan Vera

Attorney
Former President and CEO of Public Counsel

Xavier Thompson

President of Baptist Ministers’ Conference
Senior Pastor of the Southern Saint Paul Church

Patti Giggans

Executive Director of Peace Over Violence

JP Harris

Former LA Sheriff’s Lieutenant
Board Member and Former President of ALADS

Robert C. Bonner

Attorney
Former DEA Administrator

Appointed by the Board of Supervisors from the community applications:

Sean Kennedy

Executive Director of Center for Juvenile Law & Policy at Loyola Law School
Former Federal Public Defender

Heather Miller

C2ESV NOMINEE
Rabbi at Beth Chayim Chadashim

Priscilla Ocen

C2ESV NOMINEE
Loyola Law School Associate Professor

Lael Rubin

Former Deputy District Attorney

DPN and the C2ESV implemented and shaped much of the commission through our 2014 report “A Civilian Review Board for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department” and our persistent campaigning and organizing efforts that spanned 3 years. Even though the county’s commission on jail violence rejected the idea of civilian oversight, we took on this fight to end state violence in the county jails and in our neighborhoods. After being invited to speak at a press conference held by the county supervisors, we decided to both claim our victory and pose important criticisms of the process. Check out the footage on Patrisse Cullors’ live Facebook video:

Civilian Oversight Commission Press Conference- Mark-Anthony Johnson from Dignity and Power Now. DPN was the main organization fighting for this Commission. #ClaimYourVictory

Posted by Patrisse Khan-Cullors on Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Patrisse Cullors, DPN’s founder and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, was instrumental in making the commission. She brought the idea to the table and organized local communities to demand it. And although she was nominated by us and made it to the final round of the interview process, the supervisors said her affiliation to BLM was a conflict of interest. However, they did not think that Robert C. Bonner being former administrator of the DEA and commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection was a conflict of interest. And even more shockingly, they didn’t think that JP Harris being a former sheriff’s department lieutenant for the very department this commission is overseeing was a conflict of interest.

Moving forward there is much to be done to ensure that this commission is effective and we are confident in the presence and fortitude of our C2ESV nominees who have been appointed. Stay tuned for more in depth profiles on all of the commissioners. In the meantime we will continue to be vigilant in pushing for subpoena power and to ensure that each commissioner is holding the LASD accountable and serving the people most affected by sheriff violence.

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Civilian Oversight Nominees

For over three years our Coalition to End Sheriff Violence has fought for civilian oversight of the sheriff’s department. While we won civilian oversight, the fight for it to be effective and have power is not over. Across Los Angeles Black and Brown communities have voiced strong opposition to the supervisors’ decision to allow former law enforcement to sit on the commission. The Coalition to End Sheriff Violence stands with incarcerated people and their loved ones as we launch our slate of highly qualified nominees who have been active participants in the movement to end civil and human rights violations inside the county jail system. Check them out below!

AKILI

45 years experience as a community and labor organizer, Akili has dedicated his work to building a just and equitable society for marginalized people, including the successful campaign to change the Los Angeles Police Department’s use of force practices in the wake the 2005 shooting of Devon Brown.

Patrisse Cullors

Founder of Dignity and Power Now and Co-founder of the #BlackLivesMatter National Network, Patrisse has long history of building mass movements and leading successful campaigns that prioritize the leadership of communities directly impacted by law enforcement violence and mass incarceration.

Rabbi Heather Miller

Part of the world’s first LGBT founded Jewish congregation, Beth Chayim Chadashim, Heather is committed to justice at the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and economic status.

Priscilla Ocen

Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School where she teaches criminal law, family law, and a seminar on race, gender and the law, her work examines the relationship between race, gender identities and punishment.

Samuel Paz

Vice President of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) providing broad support for grassroots and victims’ organizations combating police misconduct.

Steve Rogers

Civilian Oversight Campaign Lead with Dignity and Power Now, Steve Rogers uses his experience as a formerly incarcerated person to end law enforcement violence by advocating on the local and state level.

Lloyd Wilkey

25 years of community work to prevent violence and improve community and police relations, Lloyd directs a youth leadership program, trains law enforcement at the Museum of Tolerance, and engages in activism to push for accountability, transparency, and constitutional policing.

Dayvon Williams

A young organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition, Dayvon directs his experience as a formerly incarcerated person into campaigns that counter the criminalization and incarceration of young people.

Michele Ynfante

Co-Lead of the Dignity and Power Now Civilian Oversight Campaign, she has used her experience being incarcerated in the women’s jail to advocate for an end to medical negligence and abuse.

Although all nine civilian oversight commissioners will ultimately be chosen by the Los Angeles County Supervisors, there is an open application process for four of the positions. If you want dignity and power for all incarcerated people, their families, and communities we encourage you to support our nominees!

TAKE ACTION! Call on your county supervisor and demand that these nominees be appointed.

TAKE ACTION HERE!

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New Year, New Youth!

This 2015 make your resolution to help build leadership skills and resilience among the youth in communities most vulnerable to incarceration!

Help us raise 5k in 15 days!

THE DANDELION RISING LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE is a 6 month program that develops students’ (age 16-24) skills in effective organizing and public leadership. It is also intended to help develop their political consciousness so they can find their voice in the larger movement for social change. We have worked with over 200 YouthBuildstudents since November 2012 to organize within their communities, run campaigns, and give testimony at the county Board of Supervisors meetings.

Your donation will support our 2015 goals to:

Work closely with 20 students over the course of two 6-month programs
Ensure that each student attends a political education class each week
Help each student be successful in organizing with formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones
Have each student organize 5 new members into Dignity and Power Now by the end of their program
Make sure each student understands and particpates in two major campaigns: stopping the two billion dollar jail plan and the implementation of a comprehensive mental health diversion plan for Los Angeles County
Have each student deliver testimony to the county Board of Supervisors
Provide resources so at the end of the program the students can put together an event to showcase what they’ve learned and how they plan to further the fight of abolition in Los Angeles County

Make 2015 the year of education, action, and abolition!

leadership Archives - Dignity and Power Now

Forever Rooted: Leadership, Storytelling, and Skill-Building