Abundance of Hope Center in the Archive
Abundance of Hope Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing services and resources to teach life skills to youth whose lives have been affected by oppression, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, homelessness and abuse. Their founder and executive staff is made up of a family of African American women who have personally faced and overcome many of the same barriers. AHC is committed to inclusion and equity in practices, policy and programming.
Cocoon House is a non-profit organization located in Snohomish County, Washington. Dedicated to breaking the cycle of homelessness, Cocoon House focuses on helping teens and young adults. It provides outreach to, as well as short and long-term housing for homeless young people ages 12-17 years old. More than just a safe place to sleep, teens receive help engaging in school, preparing for employment and help accessing community services. An important aspect of Cocoon House is their focus on prevention. This includes educating and supporting parents to build safe, structured environments for teens to develop. Parents of teens can also access Cocoon House to gain support for themselves and families so that young people do not become homeless.
Cocoon House believes that Black Lives Matter and recognizes that there is no way to end youth homelessness without dismantling institutional racism. In response to the movement, their immediate next steps include: a commitment to building a staff capacity and expertise to help drive Equity and Inclusion throughout all aspects of our agency; create and lead strategic measurable actions that ensure Cocoon House is a place where youth, families, staff, and Communities of Color can thrive; Building a Race Equity Culture— one that is focused on proactively counteracting race inequities inside and outside of an organization.
Gender Diversity in the Archive
Gender Diversity increases the awareness and understanding of the wide range of gender diversity in children, adolescents, and adults by providing family support, building community, increasing societal awareness, and improving the well-being for people of all gender identities and expressions. It does so by offering and providing school training, workplace training, and health care providing training. The organization works to create safe spaces for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals within institutions.
Powerful Voices in the Archive
With a fully femme, womxn, non-binary staff of color, Powerful Voices aims to create a space where young girls of color can feel brave enough to share their truths amongst themselves and then the world. Since 1995, this organization has created gender-specific, social justice programs for 11-19 year olds so that they can be equipped with communal knowledge and platforms to speak up. This organization works with the community to reframe what it looks like to support and be led by young people.
Women of Color for Systemic Change in the Archive
This youth led organization, used grassroots community engagement to combat the issue of police accountability and brutality. Women of Color for Systemic Change sported “aggressively peaceful actions” to promote: unbiased police prosecution, mandated cultural competency education programs for the criminal justice system, and required annual de-escalation workshops for police officers. When active, this organization engaged with the youth of color and young women of color to participate in conversations around systemic change while also taking to the streets in protest.
Young Women Empowered in the Archive
Young Women Empowered provides a community of belonging for young women as they move toward adulthood, identifying college and career interests, and exploring ways to take action as community changemakers. Each year Young Women Empowered directly serve over 700 girls and women and benefit over 2,000 community members. Of current Young Women Empowered youth, 70% are first or second generation immigrants, 85% are of color and 90% are from low-income backgrounds. With learning and leadership programs that center marginalized young women, we provide empowerment programs for young women so that they will become leaders who effect positive change in their communities. In Y-WE, young women find their voices, gain skills, develop self-confidence, expand creative expression, explore educational and career pathways, and forge strong bonds within a dynamic intergenerational and intercultural community. The diversity of the Young Women Empowered community includes differences in race, culture, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, physical ability, life experience, family status and living circumstances. The organization centers young women who often lack access to leadership programs. For them, this means centering participants who are of color; from immigrant communities; from low-income backgrounds; and who identify as LGBTQIA.