1. Educate yourself about the issues related to the School to Prison Pipeline (STPP).
2. Start a Peace Room at your local school or volunteer in an existing one. Visit Community Organizing for Family Issues’ website to download their terrific guide about restorative justice in Chicago Public Schools.
3. Information Activism – Become an information activist and push the government and local agencies to disclose funding, service, and other information about education and also about the juvenile justice systems. Form local accountability taskforces or join an existing one (Visit the Burns Institute’s website for more information).
4. Find out what youth groups in your neighborhood might be actively organizing about STPP and support their youth-led efforts financially, by attending their events, etc… (Southwest Youth Collaborative, Block Together, Young Women’s Action Team)
5. Conduct your own participatory action research project about issues relating to STPP (e.g. Suspension Stories). Use that information to advocate for change.
6. Visit the new interactive exhibit around juvenile justice and prison industrial complex issues at Hull House Museum.
7. Starting in February 2011, invite speakers from the PIC Teaching Collective to offer a workshop in your community. Send workshop requests to chipicteach@gmail.com.
8. Apply to participate in the 30-hour Juvenile Justice Advocacy Training Program (JJATP). Applications can be downloaded from Project NIA’s website (www.project-nia.org) and the deadline for applications is November 15th 2010.
9. Make a financial donation to any local group addressing these issues.
10. Join your local school council at your neighborhood school as a parent or community member. Insist that the school reject zero tolerance policies.
By Project NIA
