ASP of NJ and Dr. Fulani to launch Cops & Kids in Newark!

Published by lhorn@allstars.org

The All Stars Project of New Jersey is pleased to announce the implementation of the full Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids (Cops & Kids) program in 2017 in partnership with Mayor Ras J. Baraka to continue to engage and improve police-community relationships throughout the City of Newark!

On November 3, 2016 All Stars Project of New Jersey held their fifth successful Cops & Kids workshop in Newark. The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Lenora Fulani who created the award-winning program in the wake of the 2006 police shooting of Shawn Bell in Queens, New York.  The police-community relations program was first piloted in New Jersey in May of 2016.

Held at the Southward Center of Hope, the workshop gave inner-city teenagers and police officers an opportunity to build trust through the use of performance, improvisation and conversation. Newark’s Mayor Ras J. Baraka has recognized the program as “…an innovative grassroots program and a nationally recognized model that is making a profound difference in the lives of young people, our communities and police officers.”

Seven young adults and ten Newark police officers joined a growing network of over 8,000 youth and police who have participated in the program.

Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids (Cops & Kids) was created by ASP’s co-founder Lenora Fulani, Ph.D., a developmental psychologist and grassroots educator, in the aftermath of the 2006 police shooting of Sean Bell in Queens, New York.  Community workshops use performance, improvisation and conversation to help teenagers and police officers build trust and create alternatives to how they usually interact with each other in the community. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) now has all Police Academy graduates participate in the  program. Dr. Fulani and the program were recently awarded the Cisco Award for Community Policing by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.