Alejandro Banuelos Email and Phone Number

Over the past decade, I have been organizing around racial justice, police, and prison abolition. I started organizing as a Posse Scholar at Northwestern University where the power of community organizing and coalition building shaped my educational and career trajectory.After graduating from Northwestern, I started my career by teaching creative writing and music recording to incarcerated youth at Dorothy Kirby. We read books exploring the themes of race, gender, and freedom, recorded rap songs capturing their personal stories, and I supported the reentry of over 20 young people back into their communities. In 2019, I joined Community Coalition's Membership Department where I recruited and reconnected hundreds of South Central community members to the organization. I currently direct the Brother, Sons, Selves coalition made up of 8 community based organizations located across Los Angeles County where we develop the leadership of boys and men of color to lead campaigns addressing conditions of criminalization and disinvestment in our communities. In 2020, we organized a series of Youth Freedom Forums where we engaged thousands of community members to finalize an LA County Youth Bill of Rights, BSS's policy vision for youth justice in LA County. We're calling on LA County decision makers to adopt the Youth Bill of Rights and raise the minimum age for youth arrest to 16 years old and redirect resources towards youth affirming institutions and initiatives. If you're an organizer, researcher, artist, culture worker, or anyone interested in learning more about community and youth organizing in Los Angeles County, feel free to message me!