Van Jones

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1994

Van Jones

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

http://www.ellabakercenter.org

San Francisco, California, United States

Community Improvement & Economic Development, Education & Youth Leadership, Non-Violence

The Bold Idea:

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is a strategy and action center working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Based in Oakland, California, we promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration through our four cutting-edge campaigns: Books Not Bars, Reclaim the Future, Bay Area Police Watch and Silence the Violence. 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 we want for urban America: justice in the system; opportunity in our cities; and peace on our streets. We use a mix of tactics to accomplish our mission, from grassroots organizing, direct action and media advocacy to public education, policy reform and legal service. This has earned us a reputation for tenacity and innovation.

Biography:

Van Jones is an environmental leader, civil rights attorney and powerhouse public speaker. He is the president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA. The Center promotes integrated solutions to urban America’s toughest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. Working with the Apollo Alliance, Van is promoting a national "green-collar jobs" initiative. He hopes this approach will create “green pathways out of poverty,” while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming. He is a 1993 Yale Law graduate, husband and father.