Meet our August and September 2020 MPF Grantees

Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance
Providence, RI | $20,000 | August 2020

Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) is a rapid-response network addressing interpersonal and state violence in Rhode Island. In response to the spread of COVID-19 and its disproportionate impact on those in detention centers, AMOR is mobilizing their communities to demand a mass release of those detained within Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, while also demanding that the police stop arresting people for minor infractions during this time of crisis. Website | Instagram | Facebook

Holistic Heaux - first time grantee!
Willow River, MN | $10,000 | August 2020

Holistic Heaux prioritizes Black and Brown mothers, birthers, and caregivers to ensure their livelihood and children are supported through community-based mutual aid models. In response to the impact COVID-19 has had on BIPOC birthers in accessing housing, food, and other urgent needs, Holistic Heaux has developed a mutual aid fund to provide financial aid, supplies, and healing spaces to Black cis and trans caregivers and birthers in Minnesota. Website | Instagram

O.D. Aid + Re+birth Equity Alliance - first time grantee!
Fort Worth, Texas | $20,000 | August 2020

O.D. Aid is a grassroots harm reduction organization in Fort Worth, Texas providing support and resources by and for people who use drugs. Re+Birth Equity Alliance supports the health and wellness of BIPOC and LGB / TGNC+ people. In response to COVID-19’s impact on sexual health care access and testing in which the Department of Health has closed all testing facilities, and a dramatic increase in new HIV cases in their communities, both organizations are delivering medical screenings as well as harm reduction supplies through monthly in-person, socially distanced Tested & Rested events. Re+Birth Website | Re+Birth Instagram | O.D. Aid Instagram

Own Up AHS - first time grantee!
Minneapolis, MN | $5,015 | August 2020

Own Up AHS is an initiative led by young Black Muslim women who have experienced racial and gender-based violence in the Anoka Hennepin School District (AHSD), the largest school district in Minnesota. Building upon the momentum of uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder and ongoing state-sponsored anti-Black violence, Own Up is addressing and working to end three decades of anti-Black gender violence occuring inside AHSD, such as harmful leadership and practices that perpetuate the criminalization of Black youth. Instagram

Starseed Earthroot - first time grantee!
Washington, D.C. | $10,000 | August 2020

Starseed Earthroot is a collective of trans & gender-expansive queer people that aims to grow community through land rematriation, food sovereignty, and deep communal healing. In response to the ways COVID-19 has exacerbated access to food and financial resources for BIPOC trans people, they are providing stipends and CSA food shares to trans BIPOC in their community.

Youth Activism Project (YAP) + Students for Equitable Public Schools (STEPS)
+ Young People for Progress (YP4P) - first time grantee!
Washington, D.C. | $20,000 | August 2020

YAP, STEPS, and YP4P are youth-led organizations focused on educational justice, civic engagement, and police violence in schools that center young women and non-binary youth of color. In response to ongoing police violence within schools on a local and national level, they are mobilizing DC-area youth to get police removed from schools in Montgomery County. YAP Instagram | STEPS Instagram | YP4P Instagram  

Comadre Luna Collective - first time grantee!
Philadelphia, PA | $10,000 | September 2020

Comadre Luna is a Philadelphia-based, multi-generational, intersectional feminist collective by and for Latinx and migrant women and femmes organizing around reproductive justice, gender & racial equity, healing, and self-determination. In response to an increase in trauma and stress on the mental health of essential workers and their children under COVID-19, Comadre Luna is organizing a healing justice project to support the individual and collective health of young Latinx and migrant parents, youth, and children during COVID-19. Facebook

Detroit Heals Detroit - first time grantee!
Detroit, MI | $10,000 | September 2020

In response to ongoing violence inflicted by police in Detroit Public Schools, Detroit Heals Detroit is supporting Black and youth-led community mobilizations to defund Detroit police and create police-free schools through direct actions, consciousness-raising, community education, a community mural, healing spaces by and for young people, and healing care kits for young Black women impacted by police violence in Detroit Public Schools. Website | Instagram

Dissenters
Chicago, IL | $10,000 | September 2020

Dissenters is a BIPOC youth-led abolitionist and anti-militarism organization leading a new generation of young people to reclaim their resources from the war industry. In response to increasing federal violence and repression against organizers and activists calling for racial justice and police abolition, they are leading a series of national panels that will support relationship building and resource sharing by and for young, queer and trans BIPOC organizers, allowing them to exchange strategies around contact with federal agents. Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Jacksonville Community Action Committee - first time grantee!
Jacksonville, FL | $10,000 | September 2020

Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) is a grassroots organization created to fight for justice and liberation, with a primary focus on police accountability and led by Black cis women and nonbinary people. JCAC plans to revamp their People Survival Program to provide food-based mutual aid in response to COVID-19, as a way to build community connections and political education. The People’s Survival Program is an effort to meet the material needs of people on the Northside and North-Westside of Jacksonville, as people on these sides of town are faced with food deserts and poor infrastructure exacerbated by COVID-19. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

New Orleans Breastfeeding Center
New Orleans, LA | $10,000 | September 2020

The New Orleans Breastfeeding Center provides high quality, holistic, and evidence-based lactation and infant feeding support to families in the New Orleans metro area, and surrounding parishes. In response to Hurricane Laura and the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, they are requesting funds to implementa rapid Disaster Response program to provide displaced/affected families and health professionals with the Infant Ready Training and emergency infant feeding resources. Website | Instagram | Facebook