CR Los Angeles (CRLA) & A New Way of Life: The Leadership, Education, Action & Dialogue (LEAD) Project— A radical political education, leadership development and re-entry program for women coming home from prison.
History/Description:
The LEAD Project was a radical-political education and leadership development program for women making the difficult transition from imprisonment back into their communities. Collaborating with A New Way of Life (ANWOL), a sober-living home in South Los Angeles, CRLA operated a year-round program that drew hundreds of participants since it’s inception in 2004 until the program’s end in 2019.
The LEAD Project hosted two workshops per month on a variety of topics, including the criminalization of addiction, alternative forms of safety and justice, anti-oppression practice and language, borders/immigration, and the history of prisons and policing in the US.
CRLA also ran a print, film and audio library at ANWOL with over 70 titles. Books, pamphlets, comics, CDs and films examined more closely the “war on drugs”, women and imprisonment, privatization of prisons, radical people of color movements in the US/internationally, and more.
Another core component of the LEAD Project was providing paid organizing internships and training for 2-3 formerly imprisoned women each internship.
Read about the CRLA’s work with the LEAD Project in our 10th Anniversary conference book, Abolition Now: 10 Years of Strategy & Struggle to Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex, here.