CEO Erica Ford and Life Camp Youth Attended Panels and Events
New York, NY – This weekend, LIFE Camp, Inc. attended the 45th Annual Caucus Weekend hosted by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators (NYSABPRL). CEO Erica Ford and over thirty young people attended panel discussions and events to learn about issues including sessions on education, income inequality and more.
“Caucus weekend was a great opportunity for our young people to join together with community leaders to learn about policy issues facing New Yorkers and engage in discussions with elected officials and advocates from New York State.”
LIFE Camp CEO Erica Ford was a featured panelist on a workshop entitled “The Power of Movement: Social Justice, Arts, and Culture” sponsored by Assemblymember Michael Blake and Jose M. Serrano, exploring the nexus between the arts, culture, politics and the fight for social justice. In addition, LIFE Camp representative AU Hogan joined Students First NY and Assemblymember Michael Blake for a panel discussion entitled “How New York’s School System Can Best Serve Communities of Color.”
The students of LIFE Camp recently participated in the sixth annual New York Peace Week campaign featuring Spike Lee, Deepak Chopra, Nick Cannon, Michael Skolnik, Mothers of gun violence victims, and many others. Peace Week was placed on the official calendar of New York City and the event’s main focus was to bring New York City together as one and promote peace in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all those New York City has lost to violence.
Throughout the year, LIFE Camp programs focus on promoting peace and violence intervention and prevention throughout the five boroughs. Thanks to LIFE Camp’s work, media reports recently highlighted how there were no shootings for 365 days in LIFE Camp’s designated South Jamaica, Queens target area.
About Erica Ford:
One of the most diligent and effective activists of her generation, Erica Ford is a world renowned youth advocate who is widely respected by government officials, civic leaders, local media and the hip hop community at large. Throughout her twenty-plus years as a community leader, Erica Ford has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino Youth in over 100 prisons, dozens of New York City Housing projects and hundreds of schools and community-based programs across the country and around the world. Ford was instrumental in creating the New York City Task Force to Combat Gun Violence in September 2011, under the leadership of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, to deliver recommendations to the City Council that, when implemented, would decrease gun violence in New York City.
About LIFE Camp:
LIFE Camp Inc., led by CEO and Founder Erica Ford, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing youth violence and providing empowerment opportunities for youth who are educationally, economically and socially disadvantaged, to help them stay in school and out of the criminal justice system. LIFE Camp developed the “Peace Is a LIFEstyle Campaign” to introduce a personal approach to conflict resolution that starts with each individual.
Utilizing the resources of the LIFE Camp Queens Crisis Management System, the Peace Is a LIFEStyle Campaign empowers individuals to take control of their own lives, to help change the cycle of violence, eliminate stress and promote peace.
LIFE Camp also promotes The “I Love My LIFE” tour, showcasing young artists and entrepreneurs who visit schools and prisons to promote self-love and to assist youth in making critical choices which prevent them from becoming perpetrators or victims of youth violence; The “Urban Yogis” program, in partnership with world renowned spiritual guru, NY Times bestselling author and outspoken LIFE Camp supporter, Deepak Chopra; and the “Healing Hearts” program, a support group comprised of mothers who’ve lost their children to gun violence, who provide assistance to other parents who’ve suffered the same loss, to help transform their pain of traumatic loss into positive purpose.