CJI Launches Campaign to Support Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls who are Transforming the Movement to End Mass Incarceration
Brooklyn, NEW YORK, February 1, 2020 – The Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) is an organization that works to end mass incarceration and criminalization throughout the country. It does this by forming giving circles that raise and grant funds to grassroots organizing groups & organizations. There are currently four circles, one of which is newly formed, in partnership with the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated women and girls– the FreeHer Circle.
CJIs giving is explicitly inspired and designed to reflect a principle of philanthropy that values the role of those most affected by injustice as participants in generating the solutions to the issues they face. The CJI FreeHER Circle Fund is comprised of criminal justice women and gender non-conforming activists, who are directly impacted (i.e., formerly incarcerated, immigrant detention wrongfully convicted, family members imprisoned) and donors who are committed to ensuring a meaningful and transformative change.
The fund will support grassroots organizing that is based in the awareness of the current political environment’s hostility toward the rights of women and girls and led by women and girls who like FreeHER Circle members, are directly impacted by the US criminal legal system.
Our goal is to raise a minimum of $500,000 by March 30th and award to up to 25 women & girl-led organizations that focus on: restoration of rights; sentencing and conditions of confinement and economic & reproductive justice, says Aleah Baquie Vaughn, Executive Director. Through the #CJIFreeHER Challenge we want to bring an awareness of our giving and the work of the dynamic front-line organizations led by the formerly incarcerated women that we support each year.
The FreeHER challenge is easy to do. Start by making a pledge to the Fund, then encourage your family, friends, and colleagues to do the same via their social media networks. On Thursday, March 19th CJI will host the first FreeHER Campaign Mixer at the Hampton Inn Brooklyn Skyline Terrace to celebrate the launch of this new circle endeavor!
To learn more about the CJIFreeHER Challenge, go to www.cjifund.org /freeher today!