?“I know the streets, I know the system, I know poverty, and I know how
it feels to be 15 and not have a safe place to go.?”
- Lateefah Simon, Center for Young Women?’s Development
Join Leadership Talks (http://leadershipforchange.org/talks/simon/) on
Friday, July 25, at 1 pm EST for a live, online interview with Lateefah
Simon, Executive Director of the Center for Young Women's Development
(CYWD), and a 2001 Leadership for a Changing World award recipient.
Lateefah Simon will discuss alternatives to incarceration for young women,
whose special circumstances are inadequately studied and addressed.
Simon and CYWD train 2,500 pre- and post-adjudicated young women a year
to become leaders capable of shaping the laws and regulations that
affect them. Participating young women have served on local commissions and
policy boards, including the San Francisco Youth Commission, the
Juvenile Justice Commission, the Young Women?’s Health Advisory Committee to
the San Francisco Health Commission, and the San Francisco District
Attorney?’s Prostitution Task Force. Simon and her team have developed one
of the nation's first peer-run education, employment and community
reintegration programs for post-adjudicated and currently incarcerated
girls.
The organization is working closely with the San Francisco Juvenile
Probation Department to develop ways for children to have more frequent
access to their incarcerated teen parents. Simon is also working with the
San Francisco mayor?’s office to develop community alternatives to
incarceration for young women. In addition to leadership development with
girls inside the system, the Center is writing a "know-your-rights" guide
in collaboration with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. The guide
will be distributed to inmates system-wide.
Please forward this message to individuals, listserves, or websites
interested in a discussion of community leadership.