Amount: $15,000
2015
Miami, FL
Power U was founded in Overtown, the historic home of Miami’s Black community, in 2000, as an intergenerational organization. In 2007, in response to the violent repression of a peaceful student demonstration in a predominantly black high school in Miami’s urban core, Power U became actively involved in the fight to dismantle the school to prison pipeline and promote restorative justice practices in schools. In 2013, after a year of strategic planning and organizational development discussions, Power U determined to focus its entire attention on youth organizing. In 2015, it partnered with the African- American Policy Forum to host “Black Girls Matter – Miami,” a town hall that called attention to the gendered nature of the school to prison pipeline. Returning Power U to Hazen’s docket, this grant will enable Power U to continue pressing the district to ensure appropriate support for the restorative justice pilots it won and their expansion to high schools. Additionally, it will help Power U to develop a Restorative Justice Rapid Response Team based outside the schools, enabling it to provide training for community activists in restorative justice practices, part of Power U’s strategy for restorative justice practices to replace jail or fines for minor offenses.