Larry Dean is a grassroots community organizer based in Chicago,IL. He will lead the organizing for the economic justice work at Access Living. He first began organizing as a founding member of Black Youth Project 100 in 2014. Larry is formerly the Organizing & Policy Associate at Community Renewal Society where he led the criminal justice and police accountability portfolio. In his role he participated in the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability and helped organize campaigns for District council candidates for their first election. Larry worked to create political education for various communities across the city about the role of District Councilors and local elections through town halls.
Larry has also worked with various community organizations working with youth on restorative justice training and policy implementation strategies for Chicago Public Schools. As the Youth Safety Advisory Council Manager Larry led youth councils to re-imagine alternative safety policies to policing in schools. He helped to lead the students to conduct research and use their experiences to present key findings to city stakeholders and ultimately push for more restorative justice directors in public schools
Larry has a Bachelors of arts from Roosevelt University in African American Studies and is currently getting his masters of arts in Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.