For over 17 years, FFLIC has been holding decision makers accountable and insuring youth can thrive by advocating for systemic policy reforms at schools all the way to the State Capitol. Focusing on youth justice reform and education justice, we are tackling the problem of school push-out and the school-to-prison pipeline through developing the leadership of parents and young people through the following programs:
Parent Advocacy Clinics
To address the immediate needs of our families in crisis, we are currently creating a Toolkit for advocating for youth in schools and will be hosting educational advocacy clinics across New Orleans starting in 2019. The goal of the toolkit and clinics is to provide additional support to the organization by going directly into the community to train parents on the tools needed to successfully advocate for their children and increasing FFLIC’s capacity to provide peer to peer advocacy for parents who are experiencing school pushout.
Parent Leadership Development
As a statewide organization, FFLIC has several chapters comprised of parents with children in or impacted by the youth justice system. We work to develop their leadership as advocates and organizers through trainings and workshops building the capacity and political power of the larger movement to end mass incarceration. This leadership development allows us to plug parents into our ongoing work, such as the Let Kids Be Kids Campaign and our annual days at the Capitol fighting to keep their children in schools and speaking up for legislation to reform the education and youth justice systems in Louisiana.
Black Man Rising Movement (BMR)
Black Man Rising seeks to put youth on the first steps of their success through mentorship programs.
Black Girls Rising (BGR)
Black Girls Rising engages girls of color empowering and promoting healing from their traumatic experiences from school push-out through storytelling, spoken word, and cultural inclusion.
