Client News: 

“When we invest in Black girls, we uplift their dreams, their power, their leadership that is emerging among Black girls and their adult champions, such that future generations are safe, free and thriving.  This is about investing in what we know is possible.” Dr. Monique Morris, executive director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, was joined by activist, actress and producer Rashida Jones on American Voices with Alicia Menendez to celebrate Black Girl Freedom Week. The week-long celebration of Black girls, Black cis and trans girls, Black gender expansive youth, Black femmes, showed what is possible when we invest abundantly in their dreams and work together to co-create a future where they are safe, free, and thriving. 

This week, more than 250 people attended the first public event of the California Black Freedom Fund, a new $100 million initiative that will provide resources to Black-led organizations in the state of California over the next five years. The event featured Black organizers and philanthropy leaders talking about the power of Black organizing to make racial justice real in California. You can watch and share the event on Facebook here

Organizers of the Fund also launched a PSA lifting up the leaders that made this unique effort possible, and the power of Black organizing and power-building in this moment. More coverage on the California Black Freedom Fund at Nonprofit AF, San Francisco Chronicle, Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Jolt.  

System-impacted young people’s “expertise must be the center of our collective work to realize freedom and liberation for everyone. We can achieve radical change only if we listen to young people’s vision of a different future.” Jessica Nowlan, executive director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center on Through their Eyes, a new report lifting up the experiences of young people who were incarcerated at San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall. WitnessLA

YWFC will be hosting a launch event on Thursday, March 4 to lift up key report themes with directly impacted community leaders, YWFC leadership and youth researchers, as well as influencers and leaders in the movement to decriminalize and decarcerate women and girls, trans young men and boys and gender-expansive youth. Bay Area Reporter.

To register, please visit: tinyurl.com/throughtheireyes2021 

 

ICYMI: 

Earlier this month, Akonadi Foundation partnered with Tao Rising to launch Creatives in Place,  a listening project lifting up answers from 22 artists from throughout the Bay Area to the question: what do creative and cultural communities need in order to continue to be rooted in the Bay Area? 7×7.