Mark your calendars for 11/30 for #GivingTuesday! We are excited to announce that The Praxis Project will be matching our donations, which means you can double your impact! This is a partner organization that truly believes in sustaining movements long-term and #BeyondtheMoment so that communities can continue the hard work of shifting power and creating meaningful change towards liberation.

Our experience tells us that it’s harder for Black-led organizations to survive and thrive. That's why we are also asking you to #GiveBlack on #GivingTuesday. Because funding Black leaders and communities with the lived experience of racial oppression is the most direct path to dismantling systems of racism. And not only will your contribution support the self-determination of those impacted, but you can double your impact with the matching gift of The Praxis Project!

FFLIC is proud of our success in celebrating our twentieth year anniversary of fighting to eradicate youth prisons, build collective power for directly impacted families, help pass critical legislation, and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

We are building an intergenerational movement to end youth incarceration and we would not have reached this point without you, our beloved partners and supporters. We thank you for standing with us in unity and strength to demand alternatives to punitive and abusive systems and envision a world without bars. 

This #GivingTuesday, please consider a donation to FFLIC and other Black-led organizations, and share the following messages.

Sample Posts:

• This #GivingTuesday I am funding Black-led racial justice work to shift power and uphold self-determination #BeyondtheMoment. I am donating to @FFLICLA to support building intergenerational Black female leadership to end youth incarceration #GiveBlack https://bit.ly/givingtuesdayfflic 
• We can give in ways that shift power this #GivingTuesday. Support Black-led nonprofits like @FFLICLA and ____names of others___ that  know that the people most directly impacted should lead the change.
• Giving to Black-led nonprofits like @FFLICLA (insert others) --who understand the lived experience of racial oppression and center those most impacted-- is the most direct path to dismantling systems of racism. #GiveBlack this #GivingTuesday

Last Saturday, FFLIC's Youth Organizing Manager, Brideisha Harness-Parker, kicked off a youth basketball league to provide youth and families programming and social supports needed to create healthy and equitable communities. Brideisha is also the founder and Executive Director of the New Orleans Youth Coalition and she has been working on establishing  community centers that meet the needs outlined in FFLIC's #LetKidsBeKids 3-point platform, which address mental health, education, and poverty. FFLIC was proud to partner with the Youth Coalition on this work to provide resources that support youth and prevent criminal involvement. We are also looking forward to the many ways in which Brideisha can integrate her work and experience with the Youth Coalition into her new role as a FFLIC team member! To learn more about the basketball leagues, watch this WWLTV news clip.

For many, "Thanksgiving" is not a day of thanks, but a "Day of Mourning." The first Thanksgiving was likely a celebratory dinner following what's now known as the Pequot Massacre. After killing over 700 men, women, and children of the Pequot Tribe, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony reportedly said, “A day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children.” It was later signed into law that, “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots.” This is why many people choose not to observe Thanksgiving. Instead, the National Day of Mourning is an annual protest to acknowledge the historical and current suffering of Native American people.

However you choose to gather, mourn, celebrate, not celebrate, or make meaning of this day, we honor your activism and efforts to transform systems of racism and oppression. We also honor the need to slow down and rest. Our offices will be closed November 25 and 26th, but if you email us at fflic@fflic.org or call at (504) 708-8376 we will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Last week, FFLIC highlighted Ernest Johnson, community leader and co-founder of Ubuntu Village Nola in our newsletter and on our website blog. Below is a short excerpt:

“'Because of the magnitude of the situation, I had to seek any opportunity I could. Being introduced with FFLIC, I was able to navigate the system and figure out for myself how system stakeholders operate.'

It was that knowledge of systems and stakeholders that later helped him establish his own organization. Though Mr. Johnson already had the qualities of a leader, his work with FFLIC gave him the opportunities to build relationships with stakeholders and those investing in the work. Several years after being introduced to and working with FFLIC, he co-founded Ubuntu Village. This trajectory– from concerned parent, to FFLIC staff, to Executive Director of his own organization serving youth and families — exemplifies the transformational leadership journey that FFLIC wishes for all parents of incarcerated youth."

Read the entire blog here.

To transform our youth justice system, we must continue to advocate for the closure of youth prisons and stop the building of new ones, and the Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission (JJRAIC) is key to change.

With FFLIC as Vice Chair, the JJRAIC has reconvened after years of dormancy, and it is once again moving the state forward in the important work of transforming our systems. But we need you to help us hold our state leaders and policymakers accountable. We must continue to ask important questions and create systems of accountability and oversight to protect our children!

For more information and to join the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on December 10, 2021 at 1:00 PM CST, visit: https://legis.la.gov

Local

Thanks to Henry Montgomery, the Supreme Court acknowledged that children should not be treated like adults because of differences in adolescent brain development, and nearly 800 people have been freed as a result. We celebrate his long overdue release from prison and we also mourn the dreams and freedom lost because of a racist and ineffective criminal justice system.

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that Louisiana has been awarded a $1.5 million grant by the United States Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime that will be used to improve outcomes for child and youth victims of human trafficking. We hope that the Governor will recognize that children who are victims of violence (both interpersonal and institutional) might then perpetuate a cycle of harm. We must intervene in that cycle: prevent harm to our children, give them the supports they need, and prevent youth incarceration.

"Rest easy Mr. Raccoon, Louisiana law protects you from receiving care from a convicted felon." A guest column by Scott Peyton, the State Director of Right on Crime, points out the long list of dehumanizing policies and prohibitions that prevent people who were convicted of a felony from living as full citizens. "Caring for an injured raccoon is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to collateral consequences of criminal convictions that have no bearing on public safety."

While most media coverage has abated, Louisianans are still suffering with major damage to their homes, property loss, unemployment, and continued displacement. View a list here of emergency assistance and mutual aid organizations working in New Orleans and the surrounding areas post Hurricane Ida. If you are a parent in need of help due to Hurricane Ida or a parent with a child involved in the system who needs help due to Ida please contact FFLIC for support at gbwomack@fflic.org or call us at (504) 708-8376. 

NATIONAL

A new research report by Brookings counters the fears of rising violent crime by reminding us that "in taking a step back from the conjecture, it is important to note that murder rates in 2020 were nowhere near the highest they’ve ever been and that increases were mostly concentrated in disinvested and structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods that had high rates of gun violence to begin with. Additionally, an extensive body of evidence has already established the risk factors that lead to violence—as well as the solutions that are most promising to alleviate it."

Currently, 11% of funding under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, #JJDPA, Title V, must be awarded to programs addressing Tribal youth, including delinquency prevention services and care for young people upon release from programs. This year, that number could go up to 20%. Learn more: bit.ly/3oIqCqC