Empowering Young Women Panel | Rep. Lateefah Simon and Young Women’s Freedom Center

Date and Time

• Thursday, Mar 12, 2026  6pm - 7pm

Location

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Details

Sisters Doing it For Themselves

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-Oakland) and two leaders of the Young Women's Freedom Center, Emani Davis and Julia Arroyo, will be in conversation with MindSite News, the nation's only news outlet devoted to mental health reporting. The subject: How the Center supports and empowers young women and helps them develop as leaders. 

🗓️ Thursday, March 12  | 6-7 PM
📍 110 The Embarcadero

Founded in 1993 as one of the nation’s first nonprofits run entirely by young women, the Young Women’s Freedom Center has spent three decades supporting young women impacted by incarceration, foster care, poverty, and trauma. Its peer-led model fosters healing, leadership development, and community organizing, helping drive major reforms—including California’s movement to end juvenile incarceration—and cultivating influential leaders such as former executive director and now U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon.

Today, YWFC operates across San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and multiple counties, with program graduates showing dramatically reduced recidivism and strong educational and employment outcomes.

About the Speakers

Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Oakland) - Congresswoman of California's 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has deep roots as a Bay Area leader and activist, with over three decades of experience in organizing, advocacy, and philanthropy. 

Emani Davis - Vice President of Strategy & Operations, NorCal, at the Young Women’s Freedom Center. A nationally recognized movement strategist with more than two decades of experience, she began publicly advocating as the teenaged daughter of an incarcerated father in the 1990s, helping elevate awareness of the impact of mass incarceration on children and families.

Julia Arroyo - Executive Director of Young Women’s Freedom Center and a movement leader with more than two decades of experience in reproductive justice, community health and rape crisis intervention. She has lived experience in foster care, the underground street economy, and incarceration and is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation and helping shape a future rooted in healing, dignity, and collective power.

Organizer: Veronica Ortega & Patrik O'Reilly

Notes:

• Attendees subject to search; no large bags.
• This program is in-person only. If you have symptoms of illness (coughing, fever, etc.), we ask that you either stay home or wear a mask. Our front desk has complimentary masks for members and guests who would like one.
• The Commonwealth Club of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.
• A Psychology Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.
• Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

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