Meet our Winter 2019 and Spring 2020 MPF Grantees
We want you to meet our Winter 2019/Spring 2020 grantees through our Mobilize Power Fund!
Although some of the grants we uplift in this email cover a time before coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic, these groups have been working diligently to create a safe and flourishing world well before quarantine.
From decarceration campaigns, to organizing healthcare access, to housing and feeding un(der) employed community members, folks are deepening the meaning of “home,” “family,” and “interdependence” in these socially isolated and physically distant times. We urge you to read on to see why we’re undoubtedly creating a new and thriving world together.
Black Feminist Futures
Atlanta, GA | Oct 2019 | $10,000
Black Feminist Futures is creating the Abolishing Patriarchal Violence in Black Communities Innovation Lab, building strategy and infrastructure to create solutions and interventions from a Black feminist lens.
Knoxville Abortion Doula Collective
& Carolina Abortion Fund
Knoxville, TN | Oct 2019 | $20,000
In response to increasing legislative restrictions around abortion access, Knoxville Abortion Doula Collective is partnering with the Carolina Abortion Fund to provide hands-on trainings for community-based pelvic care practitioners to build mutual aid networks.
Black Phoenix Organizing Collective
Phoenix, AZ | Oct 2019 | $10,000
Black Phoenix Organizing Collective is organizing and building the leadership of young, Black community members to gain seats on the first Civilian Review Board in the City of Phoenix, which will monitor police activity in the city.
Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition
New Orleans, LA | Nov 2019 | $15,000
In response to efforts to re-open a temporary detention center and turn it into a permanent prison facility, Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition is mobilizing and organizing their community to make sure that no new jails are built.
Power to Live Campaign
Oakland, CA | Nov 2019 | $15,000
In response to the PGE power shut offs and wildfires that have been taking place in California, they are organizing emergency mutual aid support as well as resources to build local, climate crisis preparedness and climate justice infrastructure led by trans and queer disabled people of color.
Colectiva Legal del Pueblo
& WA Immigration Solidarity Network
Burien, WA | Nov 2019 | $10,000
Colectiva Legal del Pueblo is organizing a series of caravans and direct actions in support of DACA in response to the November 12th Supreme Court hearing, as well as the final ruling in the Summer of 2020.
Dissenters
Chicago, IL | Dec 2019 | $10,000
With recent uprisings and militarized responses by certain state powers, along with the recent military coup in Bolivia, Dissenters is convening & building the leadership of 15 young Black & Brown femmes who have been personally impacted by war and militarism to build an anti-militarism movement on their college campuses.
Justice for Jason & People Against Police Brutality
New Haven, CT | Dec 2019 | $20,000
In response to ongoing police violence against young Black people, Justice for Jason & People Against Police Brutality is developing a series of direct actions, know your rights trainings, and legal defense for two young Black people who have been targeted by the police.
Newburgh LGBTQ Center
Newburgh, NY | Jan 2020 | $10,000
Newburgh LGBTQ Center is mobilizing their communities to improve public transportation with leadership made up by and for Black and Brown LGBTQ young people in Orange County, NY.
Semillas Healing Project
San Juan, PR | January 2020 | $20,000
Semillas Healing Project is organizing a network of Puerto Rico-based organizations leading mutual aid, community care, and healing justice to address the physical, emotional, and logistical trauma of ongoing earthquakes.
Alimentacion Segura Infantil (ASI)
Dorado, PR | February 2020 | $10,000
Alimentacion Segura Infantil (ASI), a 2018 MPF grantee, works towards food safety for infants, children, and parents. In response to the impacts that the ongoing earthquakes in Puerto Rico have had on parents’ and families’ access to basic needs such as water, electricity, and food, they are providing support on safe infant feeding, train brigades and relief workers as safe infant and young child feeding first responders.
Editorial Casa Cuna
Hormigueros, PR | Feb 2020 | $7,500
In response to the social, economic, and structural challenges experienced by trans and non binary youth in accessing housing resources and humanitarian aid with the impacts of ongoing earthquakes in Puerto Rico, Editorial Casa Cuna is providing shelter, food, and healing resources by and for trans and non binary youth while collaborating with other groups to create LGBTQ-specific wellness and emergency support infrastructure.
Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change
Europa, MS | Feb 2020 | $10,000
With widespread and ongoing violence against young men, women, and LGBTQ students in Europa high schools, and the lack of safety that existing white, male resource officers provide in response, the Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change is organizing a campaign to get two community-based women of color whom students have existing relationships with into the positions of female resource officers.
Red Canary Song
Brooklyn, NY | Feb 2020 | $10,000
In response to the rise of gentrification in Chinatowns across the country and the specific building of a 725-unit development with zero affordable housing in Los Angeles Chinatown, Red Canary Song is organizing a series of public speak outs, actions, and strategy-based working groups for Coast to Coast Chinatown Coalition members.
Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition
Detroit, MI | March 2020 | $17,000
Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition is organizing an Indigenous and women of color-led summit that integrates healing and transformative justice in the fight toward environmental justice in Michigan and beyond.
Sueños Sin Fronteras de Tejas
San Antonio, TX | March 2020 | $10,000
With 60,000 migrants subjected to the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), an inhumane policy that forces asylum-seeking adults, children, and infants to live in dangerous Mexican states while they await their tent-court hearings, Sueños Sin Fronteras de Tejas is mobilizing their community and collecting data & research to end the enforcement of MPP.
Trans(forming)
Atlanta, GA | March 2020 | $10,000
In response to the roll back of hard won protections for trans people within Georgia state “women’s” prisons, Trans(forming) is developing the leadership of incarcerated members while creating a path to community and movement building on the outside.
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In the past two weeks alone, we received $650K in rapid response requests ranging from bailing out and housing trans sex workers locked up at Rikers to healing justice and mutual aid strategies. This is almost 10 times the amount that we usually get — prior to the pandemic, $350K is what we budgeted for all of 2020. We are committed to resourcing folks fighting for safe, healthy, and thriving communities as best we can.
But we need help to support this work.
