📣✊🏻Resource Organizing for the Ella Baker Center: A Community Call-in ✊🏻📣

Hello friends,

In October I was invited to participate in Restore Oakland's teach-in on the fight against the Santa Rita Jail expansion. Prior to this meeting my knowledge about the carceral system was limited to what I had learned through Ear Hustle, a podcast that outlines the daily realities of people living inside prison. 

For me, the teach-in revealed the strong network of resistance fighters that bolster California's "progressive" reputation. It was a gift to hear stories from formerly incarcerated and systems-impacted folks and be immersed in the collective energy/urgency in the room. I am always grateful to engage in these cross-cultural, cross-class solidarity spaces. They deepen my commitment to mobilizing my network to invest in local community-based, care-based campaigns. 

Growing up in the Bay Area, I was intimately aware of the disparate educational and financial opportunities for neighboring communities: Oakland // Piedmont; East Palo Alto // Palo Alto; San Jose // Mountain View. However, not until I connected with Restore Oakland's sister organization, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC), did I consider how our "justice" system influences these visible, disparate opportunities. Since joining EBC's Academy for Leaderful Action, I've sharpened my understanding of donor organizing initiatives so we can collectively expand resources for the movement against prisons and toward holistic community support. 

This spring, I implore you to amplify the voices, struggles, humanity, and visibility of those incarcerated. EBC's annual Stamps Campaign reminds us that maintaining connections and building community across walls drives our collective work toward liberation. Postal mail remains a critically important method of communication for incarcerated people. And with the price of stamps increasing 5 cents, folks inside (whose current minimum wage is $.08/hour...that's right, 8 cents) will disproportionately absorb the weight of the cost. 

Please consider donating to EBC's 2024 Stamps Campaign. Your gift today helps shift the narrative around community safety, advance racial justice in California, and power our collective victories toward liberation and self-determination. When people inside are able to get their vision out, it gives our movement power - the power to advocate for change, demand justice, and uphold the dignity of every individual. 

We, as folks with wealth, have a meaningful role to play in redistributing our class privilege to support visionary leadership. If you'd like to connect about the work I'm doing and how you can get involved, please don't hesitate to reach out. I appreciate your dedication to being part of the solution with me. 

With gratitude and commitment,

Emily