Lived expertise of homelessness is key to the Austin Youth Collective’s identity and mission. Formed in 2018, the ever-changing group of young adults provides input, feedback, and perspective to groups like ECHO and LifeWorks to inform and guide programs that serve people experiencing homelessness. As current member Mesha Fox puts it: “No one knows what somebody needs on the streets better than somebody who’s been on the streets.”
On Wednesday, September 9, we will explore the trauma around over-policing— the many ways in which targeted and continuous police presence in certain communities perpetuates traumatic legacies of unfreedom. We will discuss the patterns of policing and surveillance in the American city unevenly distributed across divisions of race and class, with practices like neighborhood patrols, or stop-and-frisk, and the implications of the structural anti-blackness that upholds and defends these policies.
Rhie Azzam Morris 