Grantee: Justice Committee
North Star Fund’s Let Us Breathe Fund moves resources to Black-led and multiracial organizations and movements fighting police violence and structural racism in New York City. This year’s grants total $160,000 for 18 organizations, and bring the total grantmaking for this fund to over $860,000 since its inception in 2015.
Originally, the fund supported local activism spurred by the death of Eric Garner, with a focus on rapid response actions demanding reforms in policing and criminal justice. But our commitment to organizing for Black liberation is longer term and we want this fund to adapt as the local circumstances shift. The fund continues to invest in long-term organizing to reimagine community safety and build economic sustainability in Black communities for the long haul. Here are the 2019 Let Us Breathe Fund grantees:
African Communities Together – $10,000
A mutual aid and civil rights organization for African immigrants organizing for policies that keep families together and meet the needs of asylum seekers, including language access and just immigration policies.
Black Alliance for Just Immigration – $5,000
A racial justice and migrant rights organization expanding the voices of Black immigrants in the immigration debate, anchoring the Safety Beyond Policing coalition, and lifting up the needs of Black immigrant women.
Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project – $10,000
A one-of-a-kind gathering space for Black LGBTQ immigrants to find community and safe space, practice healing and wellness, and develop strategies to combat detention and deportation policies.
Black Trans Media – $15,000
A powerful cultural organizing home for Black transgender people to create safe spaces and lift up their stories on their own terms, through videos, murals, and cultural events.
Black Youth Project 100 Education Fund – $10,000
A national activist member-based organization of Black 18- to 35-year-olds with a strong New York City chapter organizing to prevent public housing residents from losing their homes when family members are arrested.
Brooklyn Movement Center – $15,000
A Black-led organization confronting gentrification in Central Brooklyn by organizing around fresh food access, environmental justice, street harassment, police accountability and citizen journalism.
Communities United for Police Reform – $5,000
The city-wide coalition that won historic changes to “stop and frisk,” now pushing for greater police transparency when police officers harass, injure or kill residents, and an end to “broken windows” policing.
Community Voices Heard – $5,000
A powerful force in East Harlem organizing public housing residents for safe, affordable housing, and creating a statewide Black women’s political agenda that will drive voter engagement efforts.
Equality for Flatbush – $5,000
A lean anti-gentrification powerhouse activating long-term residents in Brooklyn around issues of housing, workers’ rights, and police violence.
Faith in NY – $5,000
A multi-faith network of more than 70 religious congregations training local clergy to educate and mobilize congregants across issues such as affordable housing, over-policing, immigration reform, and an accurate census.
FIERCE – $5,000
A Bronx-based grassroots organization of LGBTQ youth of color leading a community conversation around both bullying of LGBTQ youth of color in schools as well as harassment and murder of LGBTQ youth by the police.
Girls for Gender Equity – $5,000
An intergenerational grassroots organization that centers the voices and experiences of girls, young women and LGBQ/TGNC (transgender and gender nonconforming) youth of color addressing discriminatory school discipline policies.
Justice Committee – $10,000
A powerful community of families who have lost loved ones to police violence who, alongside their allies, are winning changes to NYPD policies and holding cops accountable in the courts and the streets.
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice – $5,000
A chapter-based national movement organized in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin that organizes youth and survivors of gun violence to promote community safety in Black and Brown communities, especially from the police.
Picture the Homeless – $15,000
A citywide, multiracial organization led by homeless New Yorkers pushing the city’s imagination and policy to create permanently affordable housing and end police harassment through direct action, participatory action research and coalition building.
Release Aging People in Prison – $15,000
Currently and formerly incarcerated people working to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice by reforming the punitive NYS Board of Parole and securing the release of elders from prison.
UndocuBlack Network – $10,000
A multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources and works for policy change such as the preservation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for refugees.
Urban Youth Collaborative – $10,000
A powerful coalition of youth-led organizing groups working to end the school-to-prison pipeline by winning funding for restorative justice practices in schools and creating Student Success Centers that give youth a path to college.