Social Justice Fund’s first ever Momentum Giving Project brought together 13 members, all alumni of previous Giving Projects, to work on issues around Police Accountability. In just 11 weeks, they raised a staggering $115,502 from 249 donors. Read about the diverse work of organizations in our region we’re funding.
2015 Spring Momentum members (some missed picture day)
Black Lives Matter Portland (Portland, OR)
We are a group of Black and non-Black POCs and allies united in the struggle for Black and African liberation. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement against all forms of state violence including systemic racism, police brutality and misconduct, mass incarceration, criminalization, and displacement and gentrification. We work to build power and organize in the communities that are most affected by issues of state violence and police brutatliy – particularly Black women, trans women, and gender variant folks.
BlackOut WA (Seattle, WA)
BlackOut WA is a Washington State based Black advocacy group with a focus on building capacity around political advocacy & civic engagement for families of African descent. We seek to develop the “People’s Plan for Justice.” This plan, which has evolved out of the “No New Youth Jail” campaign, will (1) build on a holistic and relational process for black centered organizations and organizing efforts to develop alternatives to our criminal/ juvenile justice systems as well as (2) strengthen community based institution building and (3) enhance anti-racist political infrastructure.
Center for Intercultural Organizing (Portland, OR)
Center for Intercultural Organizing is a diverse, grassroots organization that leads community-based efforts to protect and expand immigrant and refugee rights through education, civic engagement and policy advocacy, community organizing and mobilization, and intergenerational leadership development. During the 2015 Oregon Legislative Session, CIO and its partners introduced an End Profiling bill that appears poised to pass. However, a change in law alone is insufficient to ensure community members know their new rights under the policy and utilize mechanisms to hold police accountable. We will activate the coalition, leadership, and base. The public will we have successfully mobilized during the legislative session to demand real change and ensure the bill is effectively implemented.
Critical Resistance, Portland Chapter (Portland, OR)
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope. Critical Resistance, on behalf of our chapter CR-Portland (CR-PDX) will support CR-PDX’s campaign to fight the violence of policing in Portland and to augment the Portland community’s capacity to identify, resource, and build alternatives to policing. This grant will support the Portland chapter in continuing to develop a strong abolitionist base in Portland and contributing to the work of CR as a national organization as we build a movement to abolish the prison industrial complex.
Indian People’s Action (Billings, MT)
Indian People’s Action’s (IPA) mission is to work in Montana urban areas, border towns of serveral Indian reservations to organize for social, economic and racial justice. IPA is deliberate through its training and listening sessions to cross the boundaries of race and class among those participating.
Goals of this project:
* Integrate analysis of police profiling into IPA’s ongoing work on the “continuum of criminalization.”
* Incorporate training on profiling and the school to prison pipeline into youth leadership training.
* Use participatory research to reassess the Billings Police Department’s treatment of the urban Indian population in Billings.
* Based on research results, work with impacted IPA members to identify demands, build community support, and pressure BPD for changes through local events and media strategies.
* Build a leadership team of 5-7 IPA leaders to shape and lead the next steps in this work.
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon (Portland, OR)
OPAL builds power for environmental justice and Civil Rights in our communities where we live, work, play and pray. We advocate for a just transportation system, inclusive housing and investment without displacement, health equity, and empowered, engaged communities who enjoy equal access to opportunity.
TriMet’s (public transportation agency) current fare inspection and enforcement program criminalizes poverty and contributes to the economic and social exclusion of people of color and immigrants in the Portland region. TriMet riders face increasing fares and difficulty accessing opportunity, increasing fare enforcement efforts that include exorbitant fines, exclusion from the system, significant criminal charges, jail time, and worse. OPAL and partners like CIO are building power in the communities most impacted by these transit policies to ensure the fair treatment of all transit riders, end unjustly punitive fare enforcement practices, and improve agency accountability.
Northwest Community Coalition for Police Accountability (Spokane/Seattle/Portland)
Peace & Justice Action League of Spokane, Mothers for Police Accountability (Seattle) and the NAACP Portland Chapter have formed the Northwest Community Coalition for Police Accountability. Each of our communities has been devastated by over-policing of African American, Latino and other low-income people. Each organization has enjoyed success bringing the DOJ to town, organizing community input for reform and moving policy makers to institutionalize these reforms to ensure community members’ constitutional rights are respected and upheld. We are requesting support to extend our reach through out the region by providing training, convening and direct action to impact policing policies locally.
Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project (Portland, OR)
Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project VOZ is a workers-led organization that empowers diverse day laborers and immigrants to improve their working condition and protect civil rights through leadership development, organizing, education and economic opportunity. We operate the MLK Jr. Worker Center, which connects hundreds of workers a week with local employers and jobs.
Our Portland Sanctuary and Not One More Campaign, which is an effort led by Voz and a coalition of Faith, Community, and Labor Organizations to pass a city ordinance to make Portland a Sanctuary City. We will utilize education forums, leadership development, and organizing with immigrants and a cross-sector of allies.