FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Joanna Gerber Smith
Director of Public Relations & Communications
Phone: 310.578.1080 x119
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Antioch University Los Angeles and the Youth Justice Coalition Co-Sponsor Workshop on Youth Incarceration Policy and Strategies for Youth Empowerment.

Culver City, CA – July 24, 2007 – Antioch University Los Angeles’ B.A. Program in Liberal Studies, Urban Community and Environment concentration, announces it will sponsor a community workshop on youth incarceration policy and community organizing, led and facilitated by the Youth Justice Coalition, on Monday August 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Youth organizers from the YJC will facilitate a program on the history of youth arrest, incarceration, probation and parole policies and will lead participants in developing strategies to challenge the incarceration of Los Angeles’ youth. The workshop is held in conjunction with Dr. Laura Barraclough’s current summer course, “Prisons, Profiling, and Policing.” The workshop will be held on Antioch University’s campus in Culver City and is free and open to all. We welcome participation by all community members concerned about the health and well-bring of our youth.

“The YJC is one of the most important organizations working for radical social, economic, and political change in Los Angeles” states Dr. Barraclough.  “Their commitment to building a youth-led movement is both crucial and inspiring, because they recognize that change has to come from those most affected by our contemporary prison crisis – our youth.”

For more than 150 years, Antioch University has promoted the values of social and economic justice, experiential learning, and community engagement. The B.A. Program in Liberal Studies offers innovative courses and educational opportunities to students who are committed to these values. Students in the Urban Community and Environment (UCE) concentration develop the theoretical, analytical, and practical skills to create change in Los Angeles by working closely with community organizations to learn about contemporary real-world issues. This workshop is an example of the unique ways in which UCE students learn.

The Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) is working to build a youth-led movement to challenge race, gender and class inequality in the Los Angeles County juvenile injustice system. The YJC is committed to 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 justice system first-hand. Their goal is to tear down a system that has ensured the massive lock-up of people of color, widespread police brutality and corruption, vast disregard for youth and communities’ constitutional and human rights, and the build-up of the world’s largest prison system. The YJC uses direct action organizing, advocacy, political education and activist arts to agitate and expose conditions of systematic inequality in order to bring about change.

The workshop will be held on Antioch University Los Angeles’ campus at 400 Corporate Pointe in Culver City and is free and open to the public. Pay parking is available in the parking structure adjacent from the campus, or metered parking is available on the street.

For more information contact Dr. Laura Barraclough, Core Faculty and Coordinator of the Urban Community and Environment concentration, at (310) 578-1080 ext. 229 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information on Antioch University Los Angeles, please visit www.antiochla.edu.

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