Our Mission
WARFOA serves as a violence prevention, healing and educational hub for street gang members and formerly incarcerated men and women. WARFOA is a place where individuals can reimagine and realize new possibilities for themselves and their community.
Our Vision
WARFOA aims to build from within the South LA community and organize people from the ground level to provide innovative, culturally relevant, and supportive systems that prevent poverty and individuals from engaging in crime and violence.
How We Got Started
The death of Nipsey Hussle in 2019 inspired the call-to-action and historic unity efforts between hundreds of rival South LA Black gang members.
The success of the resulting LA Peace March efforts highlighted the need for innovative and collaborative approaches to conflict resolution, violence prevention, healing, and educational development.
Recognizing that “we are responsible for one another,” WARFOA builds on the momentum of unification efforts that have been cultivated by key leaders with lived experience and addresses the need for support, resources and deeper transformation in South LA.
Fran Tirado is a writer and speaker. You might know him as the deputy editor of Out, the co-creator of Food 4 Thot, and formerly the executive editor of Hello Mr. He is also generally very loud on social media.
Fran lives, works and podcasts from Brooklyn, New York and is available to travel for speaking engagements.
Contact Fran for more info.