Campaign for Community: Youth Empowerment and Law Enforcement Panel Event

On Wednesday, January 21, DPS and the African American Resource Center (AARC) held a panel discuss titled “Campaign for Community: Youth Empowerment and Law Enforcement” as part of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., University of Pennsylvania Commemorative Symposium on Social Change. After an uplifting and thought provoking introduction by Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad, M. Ed, MRPYC, the University’s Interfaith Fellow & Campus Minister to the Muslim Community, the panel moderator, Dr. Howard Stevenson, Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Africana Studies, Graduate School of Education opened the panel discussion. The panel was comprised of Maureen S. Rush, Vice President for Public Safety; Linda Cliatt-Wayman, Principal of Strawberry Mansion High School; Lieutenant Gary Williams, University of Pennsylvania Police Department; and Amber Brown, former Police Athletic League (PAL) member and PAL scholarship winner, who is currently attending Harcum College.

Attendees and panelists discussed the role of law enforcement, school administrators and other community role models in supporting the personal growth of a child. Programs such as the Philadelphia Police Athletic League were highlighted as examples of ways to connect with and support the youth in our city.

For more information about ways you can help, visit the Philadelphia PAL website here, or contact the Division of Public Safety at 215-898-7515.

For more information about Strawberry Mansion High School, visit the Dateline NBC website here to view the profile produced in 2013.