Thank you so much to all who attended Care Beyond Cages today. Hearing from and engaging with our speakers and community members today filled us with hope and strengthened our commitment to learning, caring, and growing with and alongside each other.

We are grateful to donate the funds we’ve raised to organizations and collectives waging mutual aid and love against the violence of the carceral system. We’re especially thankful to Abolition Now for their support and For Everyone Collective for screen-printing our t-shirts. Please join us in supporting their work!

Want to learn more? We’ve compiled additional educational resources (podcasts, websites, actions, etc.) on this temporary but evolving site.

Join us for an afternoon of art, community, and political education.

RSVP by Apr 24

Event details

• Date: April 26, 2026

• Time: 1-3:30 pm

• Location: Verano Community Center (70000 Verano Rd S, Irvine, CA 92617)

At this event, we’ll:

• Learn about prison abolition with system-impacted speakers, artists, and prison abolition organizations

• Resist the violence of the carceral system through hand-written postcards for people incarcerated in prisons

$5-10 suggested donation—no one turned away for lack of funds!

• Donate five or more books for FREE ENTRY (see attached for book guidelines). All collected books will go directly to people behind bars through the Prison Library Project.

• Screen-printed shirts for sale

100% of proceeds go toward:

• Keeping our program and community events free and accessible to all people

• Supporting individuals and organizations engaged in prison abolition

Why donate books?

With nearly two million people behind bars at any given time, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of all countries in the world. Rather than investing in community well-being (quality, accessible, and affordable education, healthcare, housing, food, etc.), the nation spends about $445 billion to lock up nearly 1% of the adult population. By expanding access to reading materials for people who are incarcerated, we hope to support successful reentry and transform punishment-centered culture into one rooted in restorative justice and collective care.

RSVP Today!

Thank you so much to all who attended our exhibit! We are beyond grateful for your support, and we hope you enjoyed learning with us.

• Read our stories here: sites.google.com/view/building-bridges-26/home.

• Please share any reflections, feedback, or ideas that you had during our exhibit using this anonymous discussion board: padlet.com/ocfocus/2026

• Connect with us on Instagram (@ocfocusorg).

Missed us today? Join us on April 26 at Care Beyond Cages, a prison solidarity event we’re hosting in partnership with VietRISE and Asian Youth Collective. The event will include engaging presentations by systems-impacted guest speakers, letter writing, and a book drive. More details here!

Join us for our annual exhibit featuring art, storytelling, and student-led dialogues.

RSVP by Apr 8

About OC Focus: Since 2023, we’ve been creating spaces to exchange knowledges, question harmful dominant narratives, and reimagine a world that prioritizes our collective well-being. Through our yearlong program, we contextualize our own stories by learning about the resistance, place-making, and creativity of racialized and marginalized communities who are often excluded from the historical record presented in our school classrooms.

Event details

• Date: April 11, 2026

• Time: 2-4 pm

• Location: Cypress Community Center (255 Visions, Irvine, CA 92620)

• Cost: Free!

At this event, attendees will:

• Hear students’ perspectives on navigating, repairing, and transforming harm in our communities

• Engage in student-facilitated conversations about ways all of us can “build bridges” across differences in our interactions, whether in our classrooms, workplaces, homes, or other spaces of gathering

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by Wednesday, April 8.

RSVP Today!

At our culminating event for this year’s program, community members listened to our stories, viewed student-produced artwork, and engaged in an interactive presentation to learn about how youth of color negotiate their identities. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported our mission and hope to continue sharing youth perspectives on challenges faced by our community while cultivating empathy among people of all ages and backgrounds.

View our work

OC Focus is incredibly grateful for the support we have received this year from Asian American Youth Leaders, especially Dr. Tony Hwang, Professor Judy Wu, Mary Nguyen, and Phuc To, as well as the South Coast Chinese Cultural Association, the UCI History Project, Mayor Farrah Khan and all of our participants and their families. This program would not have been possible without their commitment to investing in youth leaders.

View our work