Last month, youth filmmakers who are active in their communities gathered in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore to explore issues of militarization and grassroots resistance and to screen their films at the Humanize Not Militarize Youth Festival premiere event. Participants—who came from Los Angeles; Chicago; Indianapolis; Greensboro, North Carolina; and St. Louis—shared the lessons learned over the three-day gathering.

Here are their reflections, with additional information from AFSC staffer Debbie Southorn.

From privatized medical services to court costs and fees, private companies are finding ways to make money off mass incarceration, with devastating consequences for prisoners, communities, and taxpayers. For a detailed look at who profits from the prison industry, check out our Investigate screening tool.

By Gloria Fortuna

As convention season winds to a close, we look at some of the important issues that activists have brought to the convention floors and to the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland.

Protesters call on Clinton and Democrats to end deportations, close family detention centers, by Andrew O’Reilly, Fox News Latino

While most media outlets at the Republic National Convention (RNC) focused on speech plagiarism, Donald Trump, and potential clashes between police and protesters, AFSC joined other organizations and individuals to advocate for just, peaceful, sustainable, and democratic policies at public events around the city, including the “People’s Justice and Peace Convention.”

Here are three takeaways from our week in Cleveland: