Happy holidays!

WINTER 2012

Greetings! The year has gone by so quickly here at BreakOUT! - it’s hard to believe this is our second end-of-the-year letter to you all. We are so excited to tell you everything we have accomplished since last winter! We’d also like to ask you to support the youth of BreakOUT! this holiday season by giving a generous gift. But first, our accomplishments from 2012!

★ Produced “We Deserve Better” Video In January we developed a film with FosterBear Films for the New Orleans Police Department called “We Deserve Better” (Surely you’ve seen it by now! If not, visit our website www.youthbreakout.org) about our experiences with the NOPD and recommendations for reform. We are happy to say that it’s being shown in NOPD officer trainings now! ★Won Groundbreaking Language in NOPD Consent Decree Next, after months of working with the Department of Justice, we won groundbreaking language in the proposed NOPD Consent Decree with the DOJ, which will prohibit the police from stopping people based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. Then, we submitted public comment to the Judge from our members and other community and worked with the DOJ to file a Declaration in federal court in support of the Consent Decree. ★Launched Community I.D. Project and Street Safety Guide To help keep our members safe on the street, we developed our Community I.D. Project with the help of the Congress of Day Laborers. Our BreakOUT! I.D.’s have our name, legal name, gender pronoun, date of birth, and our legal rights on them for interactions with the police. We then released a comic booklet based on our transgender members’ experiences called our Street Safety Guide for Preserving Your Rights with the Police! ★Wrote and Delivered Proposed Policy to NOPD, City Council We spent months toiling our the drafting of our own proposed policy for the NOPD and then presented it, along with testimony from our transgender members, at a special City Council Criminal Justice Subcommittee Meeting with representatives from the NOPD and the Independent Police Monitor. We had over 50 individuals and organizations submit public comment

Members and friends at

1-Year Anniversary Party

At the Allied Media Conference, Detroit MI

At the IGNITE Convening Atlanta, GA

Contact us at: 1001 S. Broad St. #217 New Orleans, LA 70125 info@youthbreakout.org

cards in support of our policy and got the NOPD to agree to meet with us prior to adopting an LGBTQ policy in the NOPD. And that’s just our “We Deserve Better” campaign! So what’s next for 2013? ★Launch of Job-Training Program for Members BreakOUT! will be entering into a partnership with JOB1, the city’s workforce development program to help train our members on job skills and find long-term employment, all while getting to work at BreakOUT! ★Organizing for Orleans Parish Prison Reform We hope to increase our work with Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition to improve conditions at the notoriously violent jail and limit the bed-size of the facility, which is partly responsible for the extreme rates of over-incarceration in Louisiana, including of LGBTQ youth and young adults of color! ★And More! We certainly have our work cut out for us to implement all of the policing changes we’ve worked so hard to get in 2012! With homelessness, school suspensions, detention, and unemployment rates all through the roof for LGBTQ youth, especially young Black transgender girls in the South, there is still a long road ahead to ending the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans! We rely on the generous contributions of our friends and allies to support our work. Our goal is to be able to raise enough money from grassroots funding sources that we can pay the rent on our youth space entirely through individual donations! Please show your support by making a generous gift to us this holiday season or signing up to be a monthly sustainer! You can donate to us online at www.youthbreakout.org or by mailing your donation to: BreakOUT! 1001 S. Broad St. #217 New Orleans, LA 70125. Our fiscal sponsor, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) processes all checks for us, so please make your check payable to: SEE // BreakOUT! On behalf of all of us at BreakOUT!, thank you for your support! Love & Happy Holidays!

2012 AWARDS 2012 Out in the Silence Youth Activism Award

from Out in the Silence PBS Documentary

2012 Freedom Fighters Social Justice Award from Freedom Fellowship Ministries

2012 Hell Yes! Grant Award from Resist, Inc.

2012 Justice for Youth Award from Juvenile

Justice Project of Louisiana

2012 Malala Youth Leadership Award from the Social Change Film Festival & Institute

Meeting with Actor, Musician

Jared Leto

At the Urban Congress with Right to the City Alliance

Raising Funds In Memory of

Brenting Dolliole, R.I.P.

Wesley Ware, Director