2008 Phenomenal Woman Awardee Susan Burton

Susan Burton is a former prisoner who, in 1998, founded A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project, a grassroots, nonprofit home for formerly incarcerated women in South Los Angeles. Under her leadership, the organization has provided resources and tools to over 150 women. In the last ten years, Susan has dedicated her life to helping women break the cycle of imprisonment, homelessness, addiction and despair, and is an active member of the national organization, All of Us or None.

In Susan’s present project, Women Organizing for Justice, for which she received a Soros Grant, she seeks to increase the civic participation of formerly incarcerated women in policy discussions pertaining to criminal justice and reentry. The project complements and sustains the direct services provided by A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project by strengthening the policy knowledge and skills of formerly incarcerated women in Greater Los Angeles.