While we can concentrate on all areas, weOklahoma Family Empowerment Center is committed to changing communities by being a social justice advocate. We value the ideas of respect, care, and equity; with a consciousness about the impact of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, family responsibility or family status, martial status, religious or political conviction, pregnancy, age, and disability. By recognizing the dignity of each individual, we seek to build a healthy community in all areas of existence. We especially seek to advocate in the areas of homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, racialized policing, and prison and jail reform.
Homelessness
Homelessness
Nearly 40% were sleeping on the streets, in encampments or otherwise “unsheltered.” The majority, 56%, reported a history of incarceration while nearly two-thirds had a disability of some kind.
Advocacy Goals
* Increase public awareness of the intersections of homelessness,
mental health and substance abuse
*. More government funding in mental health
*. Increase the number of housing, mental health, substance abuse
resources
Prison and Jail Reform
The United States incarcerates its citizens more than any other country. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color and does not make us safer.
Racial disparities persist at every level from misdemeanor arrests to executions. The “tough on crime” policies that led to mass incarceration are rooted in the belief that Black and brown people are inherently guilty and dangerous—and that belief still drives excessive sentencing policies today.
Advocacy Goals:
*. Increase the number deferred to community programs for individuals
working through the dis-ease of substance abuse and mental health
* Reduce black and brown juveniles contact with law enforcement
* Reform the bail bond system
*. Reduce the number of wrongful convictions of black and brown adults
* Improve living conditions for inmates and working conditions for staff in
Oklahoma jails and prisons
Women Prisons
Without Prisons Look Like?
Racialized Policing
Racialized Policing, and Justice Reform actively engage in exploring the intersections of, policing, mass incarnation, and racial disparities in the criminal legal system and advocate in the reduction effort.
Substance Abuse
Substance use and addiction know no boundaries. It affects people in all geographic areas, race, ethnicity, economic, age, and gender. It is a national crisis, and based on research and experience, we know to respond effectively, it will take all of us working together to combat the addiction crisis. We encourage impacted individuals and families to bring the issue of addiction to life by telling their stories. Here are some practical things that each of us can do:
1. Make your voice heard - write your congressperson and encourage them to
support legislation to increase funding for evidence-based recovery
programming.
2. Support early and broad-based prevention programming
3. Expand access to prevention programming
4. Decriminalize addiction and address it as health treatment
