Jhody Polk’s Migration to New York
Donation protected
My name is Jhody Polk, aka JuJu De’Alchemist. I am the Founder of the Legal Empowerment and Advocacy Hub (L.E.A.H). LEAH is the first Participatory Defense Hub in the State of Florida and the first home of the National Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative (JLI). I am the former Director of Community Justice at the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding. I am known for my work as a central Florida Organizer on Amendment 4, a campaign to restore voting rights to over 1.5 million Floridians with felony convictions. I received the 2019 Peacebuilder of the Year Award and the 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr. Legacy award. I served as the Director of the Alachua County Reentry Coalition 2017-2020 and the founding organizer of the Florida Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. The 4th person in the State of Florida to be named a Soros Justice Fellow in 2018. I currently serve on the board Namati, the Global Legal Empowerment Network.
This GoFundMe supports my dream to migrate myself and my family to New York. I have been affiliated with NY for the past four years. Although I live in Florida, my work has been housed and cultivated at NYU through the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU law. I recently accepted a paid one-year fellowship in NY, beginning in December 2022. During a recent visit to NY, I applied for a house in Queens and was notified last week that I was accepted for the apartment with a move-in date of December 5th. Right on time for me to start the fellowship. Despite my past and inability to obtain affordable housing in Florida, I was accepted to the first home of my choice in Queens.
Your donation will ensure that I have all the move-in fees and costs needed to move our life from Florida to New York. It is important to me that I leave Florida in good standing with integrity. I am also moving during the winter months. This is so much more than a move for my family and me. I am changing the narrative and trajectory of who we are and who we can be. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe that dreams come true. My life most days feels like a dream. A dream that I have been dreaming for many lifetimes. In addition to being a community organizer, legal empowerment practitioner and peacebuilder, I am a mother, the oldest daughter, sister of two brothers and a messenger of peace and hope.
For many people, times are more challenging than they have ever been, and for many of us, they are still problematic. All my life, I knew pain until I learned to love myself. Loving me has opened so many doors and continues to make way for me to not only light the way for myself but to be a reflection and evidence to others. I hope to continue to be a model and a witness that life is still good and that when we believe, anything is possible.
Thank you in advance for your support and faith in me. For a short moment, I doubted being able to afford this leap into eternity. I begin to consider my circumstances and the world around me. I am so thankful that this lie didn’t last too long! I have come a long way in my 38 years of living, but I have never been alone. Even in my darkest hours, love remained my peace and my light.
I look forward to NOW Being a light from New York in 2023! Happy New Year from Me and My Family!
Organizer
Jhody Polk
Organizer
Micanopy, FL