2019 Grantees
We are delighted to announce the first grants awarded by Life Comes From It.
In November 2018, the Life Comes From It advisory circle chose twenty-two projects around the country from among 180 applicants to receive grants up to $25,000, for a total of $347,000. It was humbling and inspiring to learn of so many projects that resonated with the fund’s values. The funds we had raised to distribute were inadequate to the task, since so much liberatory work is under way, and beyond what we could support. But a start has been made. Grants will be made on an annual basis. We hope to raise more money to distribute next year. We strongly encourage those who did not get funding this time to come back.
The 22 projects that received grants are listed under four headings: individual projects in either indigenous peacemaking, transformative justice, or restorative justice, and convenings of several projects.
Our Grantees
Indigenous Peacemaking
The grant will assist the Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative’s mission of providing written resources, training, technical assistance, and advocacy to support U.S. Tribes' peacemaking efforts, as well as to support outreach into, and collaboration with, the broader Restorative Justice movement worldwide. This is an effort to support a movement in tribes that are trying to throw off or improve upon the tribal court systems that were imposed on them by the United States government as part of massive efforts to exterminate the tribes' own cultures. The grant will support work to develop peacemaking systems in Native communities—but only at their request and only by working with each community to develop a system of their own, based on their own culture, situation, and people—and to connect tribal peacemakers with each other and with the global restorative justice movement.
The project will hold Reentry Talking Circles, built on Dakota Kinship Teachings and the Anishanabe 7 Grandfather Teachings, for 20-30 Native men at the men's maximum prison at Oak Park Heights, 20-30 Native women at the women’s prison at MCF Shakopee, 15-25 Native women at the Federal Prison for women at Waseca, and 15-25 women returning from prison to the Twin Cities, all in Minnesota. The grant will also pay for travel and food expenses for one of the two Indigenous Restorative Practices trainers requested by Yup’ik community members/education staff in the village of Akiachak, Alaska, who are seeking to revitalize the Indigenous model of Restorative Practices in order to decrease the number of Yup’ik youth who are involved with the justice system and who are at risk of educational failure. The Yup’ik group already have funding for one of the trainers.
Uplifting Indigenous Based Restorative Practices
IBPR Consulting | Arthur Argomaniz and Jose Gutierrez
Los Angeles, CA
Indigenous Based Restorative Practices runs workshops, trainings and community talking circles on a volunteer basis at no cost to communities, schools and organizations across Southern California with predominantly black and brown and low-income populations. They focus on topics including restorative and transformative justice/practices in the home, school, community or organizing spaces, decolonizing mental health and uplifting the native/indigenous roots of restorative and transformative justice/practices.“ We follow indigenous traditions and teachings handed down from our Maya Lenca and Mexika ancestors and Toltec, Lakota, Zuni, Huichol and Purepecha teachers. Our goal is to uplift the sacredness and spirituality of each person that we work with. As people of color, we also understand that we are the experts on our own issues and use our lived experiences with gang violence, drugs, machismo and prisons to speak, teach, and walk with those in our circles. Institutions have failed our communities and our work sets the blueprint for positive and grassroots alternatives.”
The Yurok Tribal Court has established Youth, Adult and Family Wellness Courts and a Re-entry Court. Safety, treatment and recovery for those involved in substance abuse is critical to these courts. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribal Court, writes, “It is our mission to return to the pre-invasion values of our people, to our community/village values, but we understand that many of the practices of those times need to be revised to meet today's problems.”
Restorative Justice
Girls Restorative Justice Diversion Program
SOUL Sisters Leadership Collective | Wakumi Douglas
Miami, FL
SOUL Sisters Leadership Collective plans to use the grant to implement a Restorative Community Conferencing (RCC) program targeting girls and non-binary youth of color, from low-income backgrounds, who are offenders and victims of crime. Their RCC project aims to address violence and repair harm caused and suffered by girls and non-binary youth of color through crime. The aim of this program is promote the healing of girls of color who are survivors of crime and to divert youth offenders from the criminal justice system and reduce recidivism. The RCC achieves healing by giving victims an opportunity to be heard; to have their suffering/pain acknowledged and recognized; to have their questions answered; to develop a sense of safety; to hold the perpetrator accountable; make things right; and address the impact of the crime. This approach diverts them from the adversarial criminal justice system which can set them on a path of homelessness, unemployment, drug abuse, criminality, incarceration and re-incarceration.
The Restorative Justice (RJ) Diversion Program serves youth (under 18) responsible for low-level felony harms and those who have been harmed by them. While our youth may have been arrested for the harm caused, they have not yet gone through the traditional court process.
We use Restorative Community Conferencing (RCC). RCC is an evidence-based, restorative approach to resolving harm and finding justice. It is a highly supported and coordinated, in-person conversation between youth who have caused harm, those whom they have harmed, and their impacted communities. In the RCC process, all parties work together to understand the impact created by the harm, understand the historical trauma associated with the harm, and create a plan that supports the juvenile's transformation as they work to repair the harm according to the victim's stated need.
How Our Lives Link Altogether!(H.O.L.L.A!) co-facilitated over 60 healing-circles with youth of color (mostly in NYC). They developed a self-reported youth-community assessment to better understand youth of color experiences with systems of oppression and interpersonal community harm and received over 400 self-reported assessments. This 3-year project led them to identify a goal of purchasing Black land. “The funds will assist us in researching, traveling and continuously building the relationships needed to support securing a sacred piece of land. Black land represents a transitioning back to nature, to our ancestors, that is missing from our healing praxis here in NYC. It also represents a commitment to a future of self-determination, and passing on a legacy to family. It represents a start for reclaiming generational wealth and health.”
Healing for Formerly Incarcerated Communities
Asian Prisoner Support Committee | Ben Wang & Eddie Zheng
Oakland, CA
Bed-Stuy Human Justice Initiative
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions | Divine Pryor
Brooklyn, NY
Bonafide is a supportive community of people impacted by incarceration who help restore each other as full participants in the community by building healthy, productive lives. Bonafide envisions a world in which people recovering from incarceration are able to pursue the same opportunities and quality of life as those who have never lost their freedom. We work to achieve this by ensuring that people affected by incarceration have the material, emotional and advocacy support they need to both integrate into society and build healthy, productive lives going forward. Bonafide contributes to this movement by formalizing and strengthening the natural support network that forms between formerly incarcerated people, investing in activities that build lasting friendships, develop confidence, and reinforce healthy habits to help people impacted by incarceration to achieve their goals.
Just Say Know, a program of Because Black is Still Beautiful, is a culturally affirming, gender responsive pilot program that is designed to promote academic engagement among criminal justice impacted Black women or those at risk. There are two components to the JSK program: educational outreach, and monthly student support groups and educational mentorship. Although JSK targets criminal justice impacted Black women, all criminal justice impacted women are welcome to participate. “We are well received by our participants due to the fact we directly relate to their culture, experiences, and speak their language. Our clients' ages are intergenerational, ranging from 18-63.”
Transformative Justice
Transformative Justice Training Institute
Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective | Mia Mingus
Oakland, CA
Preventing and Responding to Gender Based Violence
Spring Up | Nastassja Schmeidt and Lea Rothman
South Florida
Networks, Convenings and Collaborations
There are more than 50,000 Somali people living in Minnesota, 11,000 of them in the 18-25 age group, most of whom reside in Hennepin County. As Black Muslims, they suffer from persistent Islamophobia, hate crimes and racism. In 2016, over 31 Somali Americans aged 18-25 living in the Twin Cities were trained in mediation and restorative practices influenced by Somali and Islamic practices. Funds are needed to establish the group’s own website; and to convene community members, activists and system partners to host a conversation around what transformative justice means for the American Somali community; host ongoing conversations over the course of one year in multiple parts of Minnesota; summarize the information and recommendations; and host community conversations in other parts of the region for additional input and support including: Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.
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On April 26-27, 2019, dozens of people will gather together at Barnard College in New York City to discuss how to work with and support people who cause harm to others. Specifically, some of the questions to be considered include: 1. How do we accompany people who have caused harm as they work to make amends for hurt they have caused? 2. How do we prevent future violence? 3. How do we center the needs of survivors while holding the truth that we do not have all of the resources of the state at our disposal at the moment? 4. What do we do when people do not want to take accountability?
This convening which will take place over two days is timely in light of the current conversations about the #MeToo movement. The "Building Accountable Communities" convening will take place over two days. The first day brings together 50 restorative and transformative justice practitioners for skill-sharing about community accountability, restorative and transformative justice. The second day is a public facing day that will include panels, plenaries and workshops. The grant will be used to cover travel costs for participants to attend the skill share for those who need support and to cover food and access costs for the convening. We will document some of the learning that happens during the convening through video and in writing.
The Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) emerged after the 2016 election sparked a rise in violence targeting immigrant, Muslim, Black and brown, and LGBTQ+ residents. When the state is the root of violence, vulnerable populations cannot expect safe responses from governing institutions. To fill this void, five Rhode Island grassroots organizations formed AMOR. "This grant will allow us to commission an organization focused on restorative justice models to train our organizers in restorative and transformative justice. Collaborating with the selected organization, we hope to integrate community accountability processes into the scope of our mental health services and develop a curriculum on restorative and transformative justice specific to Providence and its communities."
George Carter III Restorative Justice Learning Exchange
The Alliance for Educational Justice | Jonathan Stith
Washington D.C.
The Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) is a national movement-building alliance of 30 youth-led and intergenerational grassroots groups across 12 states and 14 cities. AEJ requested the grant to support the George Carter III Restorative Justice Learning Exchange, which would build the capacity of 6-8 AEJ organizations and between 12-20 youth leaders (ages 14-21) seeking to deepen their praxis as restorative justice practitioners, cultural workers and community healers. The Learning Exchange would convene youth leaders and staff from AEJ membership organizations in 1 or 2 cities for multiple days to skillshare best RJ program and personal practices, cultivate transformative relationships as a community of practice and be introduced to somatic healing practices. After the learning exchange, the tools and thinking developed will be synthesized into workshops and action kits and disseminated through the Alliance and its networks.