Amount: $25,000
2015
Providence, RI
PrYSM is a youth-led organization that supports Southeast Asian youth to become leaders, organizers, and critical thinkers by offering educational workshops, leadership opportunities, and mentorship to build grassroots power and organize collectively for social justice. Every day in Providence, groups of young Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong American youth are stopped by the Gang Unit of the Providence Police Department (PPD) without a given reason, solicited for their personal information, and entered into the Gang Database system. Over the past two years, PrYSM has worked with a coalition of local grassroots organizations called STEP UP (Standing Together to End Poverty and Undo Profiling) to prevent this racial profiling and hold the PPD accountable to its community. The Community Safety Act for which they are advocating ends racial profiling, establishes due process for those added to the Gang Database, and ensures language access rights. Hazen’s renewal grant will enable them to continue advocacy for this Act, including door-knocking, one-on-ones, City Council hearings, town halls, and ongoing meetings with Providence officials.