Search
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Announces $98,000 Grant for Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) today announced that the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center has received a $98,948 grant from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
With the grant, the MLK Center has launched a Youth and Non-Violence Leadership Team initially composed of 24 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 from across Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The inaugural team began its training on August 2 and will continue throughout the month, followed by a graduation on Saturday, August 28 - the 41st anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They spend three days per week in trainings in leadership skills, root causes of violence, unlearning racism, ecological sustainability, conflict resolution, and community organizing skills. The other two days per week are spent in service placements in community-based organizations. The team will continue through the Fall and Spring with after-school and occasional weekend programs.
The MLK Center will also use the grant to update, expand and reprint “Keep the Peace - a Nonviolence Resource Directory” and to create a searchable online database of the Directory. The Directory was initially published in collaboration with the Alameda County Department of Public Health.
“I am very happy that the MLK Freedom Center has received this money,” said Lee. “This grant will enable the Center to better carry out the effort to combat crime and violence through a visionary approach of shaping the minds of our youth to believe that violence is never an appropriate option.”
“We have been deeply moved by the response from our young people from Oakland and the East Bay to our Youth Nonviolence Leadership Training,” said Claire Greensfelder, Executive Director of the Freedom Center. “Their serious commitment to our month-long study and practice of peace and community responsibility is impressive and belies the myth that young people today are apathetic. We are very grateful to the Congresswoman for her help in securing this grant. The Congresswoman understands the need to support creative, interactive approaches to training our young people to be a new generation of leaders in our community -- a generation committed to the path of nonviolence for positive social change.”
###
With the grant, the MLK Center has launched a Youth and Non-Violence Leadership Team initially composed of 24 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 from across Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The inaugural team began its training on August 2 and will continue throughout the month, followed by a graduation on Saturday, August 28 - the 41st anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They spend three days per week in trainings in leadership skills, root causes of violence, unlearning racism, ecological sustainability, conflict resolution, and community organizing skills. The other two days per week are spent in service placements in community-based organizations. The team will continue through the Fall and Spring with after-school and occasional weekend programs.
The MLK Center will also use the grant to update, expand and reprint “Keep the Peace - a Nonviolence Resource Directory” and to create a searchable online database of the Directory. The Directory was initially published in collaboration with the Alameda County Department of Public Health.
“I am very happy that the MLK Freedom Center has received this money,” said Lee. “This grant will enable the Center to better carry out the effort to combat crime and violence through a visionary approach of shaping the minds of our youth to believe that violence is never an appropriate option.”
“We have been deeply moved by the response from our young people from Oakland and the East Bay to our Youth Nonviolence Leadership Training,” said Claire Greensfelder, Executive Director of the Freedom Center. “Their serious commitment to our month-long study and practice of peace and community responsibility is impressive and belies the myth that young people today are apathetic. We are very grateful to the Congresswoman for her help in securing this grant. The Congresswoman understands the need to support creative, interactive approaches to training our young people to be a new generation of leaders in our community -- a generation committed to the path of nonviolence for positive social change.”
###