Youth Empowerment Day

International Figure Lennox Hinds and R&B/Pop Star Raz B Join the Education Not Incarceration Coalition (ENI) for Youth Empowerment Day to launch a campaign to address the crisis of students pushed out of school and into prison

WHAT: “Youth Empowerment Day” to Stop “Pushouts” from School into Prison

WHEN: Saturday, June 3, 2006, 6pm to 9pm

WHERE: McClymonds Educational Complex , 2607 Myrtle Street (26th Street, between Adeline and Market Streets)

WHO: Students, parents, labor unions, educators, community leaders, interfaith leaders and elected officials

Oakland, CA – Youth, parents, educators, labor unions, interfaith, community members, and elected officials will join Lennox Hinds, lawyer for South Africa, Rwanda, Nelson Mandela and Angela Davis; Raz B, R&B Pop Artist, formerly of B2K; Camila Chavez, daughter of Delores Huerta, niece of Cesar Chavez and Executive Director and co-founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and Barbara Becnel, gubernatorial candidate and lawyer for Stanly “Tookie” Williams for Youth Empowerment Day to launch our campaign to stop students from being pushed out of our schools – into our streets - and into our prisons.

In Oakland over 52% of youth and 73% of all African American males do not finish school. Throughout the country in inner-cities over 50% of African American males do not finish high school; 72% of these “pushouts” were jobless in their 20s; by their mid-thirties, 60% had spent time in prison.

Through excessive policies of suspension and expulsion, lack of adequate resources, insufficient school staffing, deteriorating and decrepit facilities and standardized “one size fits all” curriculum, our youth are increasingly being pushed out of our schools – on to our streets – and into our prisons.

Education Not Incarceration has worked extensively with youth, parents and educators at McClymonds Educational Complex and throughout Oakland to develop a campaign that seeks to make changes to the education system that will make students want to stay in school.

“The issue of pushouts is central to communities of color throughout the nation. Students forced out of school leads to unemployment and forces young people into criminal activity to survive. We can either invest in our children today or in their incarceration tomorrow.” said keynote speaker Lennox Hinds.


For more information, please visit http://www.ednotinc.org or call 510.225.8491
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