Highland Park, NJ) | December 4, 2018 – Ashton Burrell, 26-year-old NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian award winner is dominating the task of becoming a life-changing influence amongst youth and adults. This time around, he has been called on for a bigger task than many from the past. On Wednesday he was voted to become the youngest chairman for the state of New Jersey’s human relations council. The mission of the council is to promote “prejudice reduction” education and address the problem of bias and violent acts based on the victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or disability. Legislation created a state-level Human Relations Council (N.J.S.A. 59:9DD-8) that was passed by both houses on September 23, 1997. The legislation specifies that the Council is to be a permanent, independent body in but not of the Department of Law and Public Safety. The first meeting of the Council was held on September 30, 1999.

The Council develops policy proposals for the state, assists with coordinating efforts to promote “prejudice reduction,” will work to prevent crimes based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or disability. The Council also acts as a clearinghouse for information and program ideas among the existing county and municipal human relations commissions.

Among its many activities, the Council will cooperate with state, county, and local government agencies to educate, encourage, develop, promote, and strengthen respect for human rights and cultural diversity and prevent and combat racism, intolerance and bigotry.

The Council includes public members, who are appointed by the Governor, the Senate President and the Assembly Speaker, as well as members of the General Assembly, representatives from the county human relations commissions, and ex-officio members.

Burrell was appointed by the governor to the advisory board of the council back in 2015, while continuing his mission of leading a 100 percent high school graduation rate after participating in his mentorship program, L.I.V.E.

L.I.V.E., which stands for “Life in Visions of Evolution,” was created in 2011 while Burrell was a sophomore at Lincoln University. Every Tuesday he traveled from college to his hometown to conduct L.I.V.E. meetings for young people ages 9 to 19 until his graduation in 2014. In its five-year history, L.I.V.E has a 100 percent graduation rate for involved seniors. The organization is involved in charitable and volunteer efforts — blanket drives for children in Malawi, Africa, food drives and various sports-related events to raise awareness of different illnesses and social injustice issues.

“I want to work on getting families out of generational curses,” said Burrell. “I want the kids to see what’s going on in their communities and I want them to see that L.I.V.E is the safe haven specifically for that reason and more.”

Throughout all of Burrell’s contributions, he is continually maneuvering beyond Highland Park, NJ to make change across the country. He just returned from Spring Lake, North Carolina where he helped with a hurricane Florence relief effort. He will be returning back there the end of the month to deliver holiday gifts to 25 families there in need. Burrell continues to take community building to the next level by reaching larger audiences, on larger platforms, to bring awareness to his mission of making sure everyone’s voice is heard throughout the community.

For more information on Burrell and his initiatives, email aburrellhp@gmail.com or visit www.ashtonburrell.com