The Juvenile Justice Project has an exciting summer ahead of us! We have a bunch of Know Your Rights Theatre workshops, service projects, and work with the youth in Jail East coming down the pipeline! But this work does not fund itself, we need your support to keep the momentum going!
This summer we will be running over 100 Know Your Rights Theatre workshops!. We will be at the Boys & Girls Club of Hickory Hill, Girls Inc, and almost every community center in the city. Each of these sites serves over 100 kids from elementary through middle school that will be learning how to more safely navigate experiences with law enforcement. We use improv theatre to help them act out realistic scenarios with police, tell them how to safely exercise their rights (which we tie back to the constitution and case law), as well as teaching them deescalation techniques. We believe that when we approach law enforcement from a place of knowledge, instead of what we learned on Law & Order, that everyone is safer.
We are also kicking off the JJP Days of Service this Saturday at Liberty’s Mass Baptist Church with one of our service partners, Operation He’s My Brother. Our goal is to create at least three 3 hour service opportunities a month for young people in 38125, 38141, 38115, and 38133 who have community service hours. By creating more opportunities at easily accessible locations we hope to break down barriers to compliance with juvenile court.
Finally, this summer the Juvenile Justice Project and G.O.T. Power are teaming up for a series of workshops with the young men being held at Jail East. When teens are tried as adults they are kept at Jail East, an adult facility. This can be scary and they are often dealing with trauma and hopelessness. We will be doing a series of workshops focusing on processing trauma, self care, accessing your inner power, and more! We are so thrilled at the opportunity to do this work.
We have a busy summer ahead of us. We need food and beverage donations for our JJP Days of service (mostly snacks) and your financial support. Donate today at https://midsouthpeace.org/g