EYI 2012: Who Empowered Who?
Empowered Youth Initiative: Reflection “We talked about empowering the youth…. But who really empowered who?” In this 7 day journey hitting the streets in Los Angeles, we talked about empowering the youth, we met with amazing souls who had lived it first-hand in Watts, in The Projects, witness to the Bloods & the Crips, we met with amazing leaders who had been huge contributors to the success of gangs and major drug deals, and we had met with young teens who grew up in non-affluent neighborhoods who were now using their voice to make a difference. We shared about what [...]
EYI 2012: Re-assimilating
Empowered Youth Initiative Post Trip Something deep and profound happened to me last week, and I can’t quite name or describe it; but something… has shifted. I woke up this morning, a stranger in my own bed, a foreigner in my own life. I felt it first while riding in the taxi home from San Francisco airport last night. My surroundings felt unknown as I traveled up highway 101 for the five hundred billionth time; the road signs unfamiliar, the buildings never before seen. Something has shifted deep within me, yet I do not know what or how it will present itself. I walk through [...]
EYI 2012: Going Into the Fire
Empowered Youth Initiative Day 6 I’m sitting here trying to calm myself down – trying to settle my thoughts after what I can only describe as the most transformational week of my life. Today was the last day of the Empowered Youth Initiative training with Off the Mat into the World. This week has already felt like such a rebirth – a new way of looking at and relating to the world around me. On our final day we drove to The Wright Ranch to partake in a sweat lodge ceremony. Our Leader, Miguel Rivera, explains the sweat lodge as an [...]
EYI 2012: My Community
Empowered Youth Initiative Day 5 I am the 1%. Well, not really- but I come from it. It is my community. And let me tell you; that is a scary thing to admit to these days, especially in the work I am currently being drawn towards. I know that there is a lot of anger towards my community- some justified, some not. I feel shame for the actions of my community; actions that have, knowingly and often unknowingly, contributed to the systems that have led to so much inequality and suffering. I feel shame for the selfish and short-sighted ways [...]
EYI 2012: Espiritu
Empowered Youth Initiative Day 4 Homeboy Industries ~ ‘Father G is a saint, the strongest man I know.” This is how our gracious guide described Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest youth intervention agency in the country. There is a building in downtown Los Angeles filled with rival gang members who are given a community where they can “learn to wake up in the morning and go to work.” HBI offers numerous services such as GED classes, Anger Management classes, Parenting classes, NA & AA Meetings onsite, Computer classes, Tattoo Removal, Legal and Immigration Services, Case Management and Mental Health services……..this community of mostly [...]
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