W'17 for Sisters Unchained and Justice as Healing
Donation protected
Dear all,
First and foremost, as the Winsor Class of 2017, we want to state our absolute belief that Black Lives Matter. We are sending love and support to our Black community members and hope you know that we stand in solidarity with you in this ongoing fight against racial injustice.
As a group of young people with the immense privilege of having received a Winsor education, we recognize our responsibility to leverage our voices, resources, and expansive social networks to support this movement. For this reason, we have organized a fundraiser to contribute to two Boston-based, Black women-led organizations doing impactful work.
Sisters Unchained is a "prison abolitionist organization dedicated to building community and power with young women affected by parental incarceration through radical education, healing, art, sisterhood and activism." They facilitate transportation for young women and girls to visit parents at Massachusetts prisons and county jails, host monthly lunches to build community amongst young women whose parents are incarcerated, and run a 6-week summer program to support those affected by incarceration. This organization not only creates space for healing and empowerment for women and girls but also actively pursues legislative change, like helping to draft and pass the Primary Caretakers Bill in Massachusetts.
Families for Justice as Healing works to "end the incarceration of women and girls [through organizing] formerly incarcerated women to join the movement toward creating community wellness alternatives to incarceration that heals and rebuilds families and communities." Just recently, the organization has advocated for issues such as preventing the construction of a new prison for women in Massachusetts and reducing the state prison population to protect incarcerated people from the COVID-19 pandemic. They also collaborated with Sisters Unchained on the Primary Caretakers Bill (linked above).
If you are interested in contributing, please donate directly to the GoFundMe page or Venmo @winsor2017. All proceeds will be evenly split between these two organizations. We are currently working on finding a corporate or private donor to match the total amount we raise. If you, an employer, or family member would be willing to match some or all of our total, please be in contact with Chanel Matthews and Hannah Green through this page. Feel free to share this fundraiser with others, as we hope to reach as many people as possible.
We are confident that, with the help of our communities, we will be able to achieve this ambitious goal.
Finally, we recognize this effort is only one of the many ways we can create change, and we urge you to pursue this fight with us offline as well. Educate yourselves, your families, your peers about the history and current reality of institutionalized racism in the United States and the rest of the world. Speak out against the many manifestations of racism you witness in your daily life. Contact your elected officials and advocate for change. Think critically about your role in systems of oppression. Show love and support to your Black friends and family. And, of course, recognize that this fight does not end when the news no longer covers it, when #BLM stops trending on social media platforms, and when your life goes seemingly back to normal. What is normal for you may not be equitable for all. Fighting for equality and speaking out against systemic racism is something we should be doing all the time because Black Lives Matter, not just today, but every day.
Warm regards,
The Winsor Class of 2017
First and foremost, as the Winsor Class of 2017, we want to state our absolute belief that Black Lives Matter. We are sending love and support to our Black community members and hope you know that we stand in solidarity with you in this ongoing fight against racial injustice.
As a group of young people with the immense privilege of having received a Winsor education, we recognize our responsibility to leverage our voices, resources, and expansive social networks to support this movement. For this reason, we have organized a fundraiser to contribute to two Boston-based, Black women-led organizations doing impactful work.
Sisters Unchained is a "prison abolitionist organization dedicated to building community and power with young women affected by parental incarceration through radical education, healing, art, sisterhood and activism." They facilitate transportation for young women and girls to visit parents at Massachusetts prisons and county jails, host monthly lunches to build community amongst young women whose parents are incarcerated, and run a 6-week summer program to support those affected by incarceration. This organization not only creates space for healing and empowerment for women and girls but also actively pursues legislative change, like helping to draft and pass the Primary Caretakers Bill in Massachusetts.
Families for Justice as Healing works to "end the incarceration of women and girls [through organizing] formerly incarcerated women to join the movement toward creating community wellness alternatives to incarceration that heals and rebuilds families and communities." Just recently, the organization has advocated for issues such as preventing the construction of a new prison for women in Massachusetts and reducing the state prison population to protect incarcerated people from the COVID-19 pandemic. They also collaborated with Sisters Unchained on the Primary Caretakers Bill (linked above).
If you are interested in contributing, please donate directly to the GoFundMe page or Venmo @winsor2017. All proceeds will be evenly split between these two organizations. We are currently working on finding a corporate or private donor to match the total amount we raise. If you, an employer, or family member would be willing to match some or all of our total, please be in contact with Chanel Matthews and Hannah Green through this page. Feel free to share this fundraiser with others, as we hope to reach as many people as possible.
We are confident that, with the help of our communities, we will be able to achieve this ambitious goal.
Finally, we recognize this effort is only one of the many ways we can create change, and we urge you to pursue this fight with us offline as well. Educate yourselves, your families, your peers about the history and current reality of institutionalized racism in the United States and the rest of the world. Speak out against the many manifestations of racism you witness in your daily life. Contact your elected officials and advocate for change. Think critically about your role in systems of oppression. Show love and support to your Black friends and family. And, of course, recognize that this fight does not end when the news no longer covers it, when #BLM stops trending on social media platforms, and when your life goes seemingly back to normal. What is normal for you may not be equitable for all. Fighting for equality and speaking out against systemic racism is something we should be doing all the time because Black Lives Matter, not just today, but every day.
Warm regards,
The Winsor Class of 2017
Organizer
Winsor 2017
Organizer
Boston, MA