About the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
In 1996, Van founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a strategy and action center working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Based in Oakland, California, Ella Baker Center promotes positive alternatives to violence and incarceration through its cutting-edge campaigns. Van served as Executive Director for more than ten years. He continues to sit on Ella Baker Center's Board of Directors.The entire country is dealing with the despair and hopelessness left after decades of disinvestment in our cities. For poor communities and communities of color it's even worse, as excessive, racist policing and over-incarceration have left people even further behind. We now face a cycle of violence that makes everyone less safe.
We need to break the cycle of violence and reinvest in our cities. Ella Baker Center is meeting this challenge head-on, offering smart solutions and uplifting alternatives to violence and incarceration. The result has been more than a decade of success and growth.
The safest neighborhoods aren’t the ones with the most prisons and the most police. They’re the ones with the best schools, the cleanest environment, and the most opportunities for young people and working people. That’s what Ella Baker Center wants for urban America: justice in the system; opportunity in our cities; and peace on our streets.
Find out more at Ella Baker Center's website.
