Ketanji Brown Jackson, newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice as of April 7th, 2022, is the First Black woman to serve in that role. via Wikipedia / AFSC
April has come and gone!
This newsletter is dedicated to reviewing all of our activities in April as we look toward kicking May off.
Enjoy.
With Love,
Jonathan Pulphus
Program Associate
AFSC ST. LOUIS
YOUTH ADVOCATES FOR HEALING WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS TO THE TEAM!
In April 2022, we were pleased to have confirmed two scholars to the Youth Advocates for Healing and Liberation. Their names are Mouhamed Ly (17 y/o) and Sienna Yazdi (15 y/o). Both are currently students at University City High School being involved in activities both in and out of school. They were able to join us for our monthly gathering and will be working alongside us moving forward. Welcome!
Mouhamed Ly and Sienna Yazdi
PEER MEDIATION TRAINING AT VASHON HIGH SCHOOL
On Tuesday April 27th and Wednesday the 28th, AFSC staff including Joshua Saleem, Program Director, and Jonathan Pulphus, Program Associate, attended Vashon to host a Peer Mediation training with select student leaders. We gave background on AFSC, covered Community Agreements, played the Adjective Name Game, and dived into an interactive curriculum around the stages of conflict resolution. We look forward working with these brilliant young people in the Fall once school starts backs up.
AFSC YOUTH GATHERING APRIL 2022
Sunday, February 20th we hosted our IN-PERSON youth gathering with members of YAHL. We addressed topics such as their (1) Advocacy Project: Researching of Social Justice (2) Ice Breakers (The Big Wind Blows and "Honey, I Love You," and (3) Bowling. As a staple, together we shared a competitive game of UNO and Pizza. We look forward to our meeting in May!
COMMUNITY SAFETY BEYOND POLICING WEBINAR:
GUN VIOLENCE & POLICING
Sarah Nash, our #RealStudentSafety Associate Fellow, and several AFSC staff nationwide co-organized another CSBP webinar. This time they tackled the issue of policing and gun violence. Jonathan Pulphus, Program Associate, participated as a presenter on this call discussing his work with Employment Connection's Cure Violence.
Many communities across the country have experienced an uptick in gun violence over the last two years at the same time that we are having a robust debate around the role of policing in our society. How has or should the movement to divest from policing and invest in community respond?
Learn more about CSBP at: https://www.afsc.org/CSBP
LITERATURE
St. Louis American
• "Getting closer to a government for the people" by Jamala Rogers
• "Emmett Till Act about future, not past" by Congressman Kweisi Mfume
• "Across America, students must learn all history" by Ben Jealous
• "The vanishing act of voting rights" by Jamala Rogers
• "We trust a justice system when we see ourselves as part of it" by Camille Davidson