More than 250 youth take History of Policing class!
In June and July, Freedom Lifted hosted a free 4-part online course for more than 250 young people ages 12 - 18 on the history of policing and what a world could look like without it. In partnership with the Chicago Freedom School and Assata’s Daughters, we designed these workshops to offer young people the opportunity to learn the historical context behind current calls to #DefundPolice.
The workshops took place on Thursdays, June 18 - July 9, each one lasting for 1.5 hours and including lectures and breakout sessions with an additional .5 hours at the end of each for participants who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) to talk and process the content. The weekly topics were 1) The Origins of Policing in the U.S. 2) Policing Social Movements 3) Policing Across Borders and 4) A World Without Policing with guest speakers William C. Anderson and Benji Hart. Participants called in every week from across the country from Massachusetts to Oregon and from cities including New Orleans, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburg, PA, El Paso, TX, New York City, Richmond, VA, St. Paul, MN, and Kalamazoo, MI. And we had at least one in Canada!
The class has ended, but anyone can browse the materials we used.
Freedom Lifted is planning to offer more opportunities for youth to engage with one another about policing and other issues important to them. More to come this fall!
In the meantime, check our stats! We received more than 100 completed evaluation surveys and 96% of respondents rated the course 4 or 5 out of 5. Here is some of the feedback…
FROM YOUTH
“This was AWESOME!!”
Caleb, New York, NY, 14
“Thank you for hosting this class! Can't wait for next week!”
Declan, VA, 16
“This class has given me a way better understanding of police brutality, and I enjoyed discussing about the prompts with others in my breakout groups. Thank you so much for this course!”
Gautami, CT, 16
“This class is like being in a school with my favorite subject.”
Nora, Iowa, 12
“Thank you so much for this class and providing a space to discuss these topics! I’m going to miss this class and you all. I hope this class continues and comes back in the future :)”
Karen, Los Angeles, CA, 15
FROM PARENTS
“…our entire family is loving the discussions this course is generating for us as his parents and also for his college age siblings. To have a 13 year old boy want to study in the summer because he feels in his core that this is imperative of our time, is quite a tribute to you and Freedom Lifted. Kudos!”
Deborah
“My daughter took the History of Policing course and learned so many new things that she had never been taught before. It was eye-opening. I overheard much of that course and was impressed by how informative and well presented the material was.”
Becca
