THE HONOREES
Every year at our Community Gala, North Star Fund reflects on the transformative social justice work that our grantees undertake every day to make New York a better home for all of us. Over the course of the evening, we honor a few outstanding grantees with the Frederick Douglass Award. This award is an opportunity to recognize and amplify the work of these organizations, celebrate their member leaders and continue to honor the legacy of grassroots community organizing at the intersection of racial and social justice.
Here, you can read about the organizations being honored with North Star Fund’s 2023 Frederick Douglass Award. At the gala, you will hear more from each of the honorees about their work.
LA COLMENA
La Colmena is the leading organization on Staten Island pushing for immigration and labor rights and empowering immigrant families. La Colmena was founded as a jobs center by and for the community in 2014 and received their first grant from North Star Fund in 2015.
La Colmena is committed to improving the lives of Staten Island immigrant workers and their families by providing access to resources, education, Know Your Rights information, job safety, leadership development and cultural celebrations. They equip day laborers, domestic workers and other low-wage immigrant workers with the tools they need to become leaders who can advocate for themselves and their communities.
La Colmena has built a strong base and community through culture, education and organizing. They promote and facilitate advocacy by their members and allies to change policies and systems and express their views publicly. La Colmena members are engaged in advocacy campaigns around Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, #PathwaytoCitizenship and Excluded No More – Coverage for All. La Colmena has been at the forefront of the Our City, Our Vote campaign, advocating for the right of green card holders to vote in municipal elections and remaining steadfast and unified in the face of right-wing opposition.
La Colmena has been a North Star Fund grantee since 2015 and most recently received a New York City Organizing grant. We’re honoring La Colmena for nearly a decade of organizing to create a safe space for the immigrant community, fight for workers’ rights and bring resources and programs to Staten Island families.
SWEET FREEDOM FARM
Where do organizing for food justice and prison abolition come together? At Sweet Freedom Farm! Sweet Freedom Farm is a project of The Freedom Food Alliance. The Freedom Food Alliance is a collective of rural and urban farmers, organizers, incarcerated people and their families that use food and farmland as organizing tools to address food sovereignty, prison abolition and economic justice.
Sweet Freedom Farm, based in Germantown, NY, grows and distributes food and medicines to their community, prioritizing incarcerated beloveds and their families. Their farm feeds 250 + low-income families through monthly frontline distributions, including a farm stand at Sing Sing in collaboration with the Sing Sing Families Collective. Their work is rooted in a long tradition of radical Black farmers and organizers who used food, land and cooperative economies as foundational tools for organizing toward liberation. Their abolitionist framework is reflected in all of their work—from the type of crops they grow to how they harvest maple syrup.
Sweet Freedom Farm is currently organizing to #BringBackCarePackages to people incarcerated in New York State prisons. They are training young BIPOC farmers in abolitionist political education and farming skills through workshops, farm days and apprenticeships. They are also developing housing cooperatives and a farm-based alternative to incarceration program for youth.
Sweet Freedom Farm has been a North Star Fund grantee since 2018 and most recently received a three-year Hudson Valley grant. We’re honoring Sweet Freedom Farm for their many years of organizing for Black liberation, fighting for incarcerated beloveds and growing a powerful community committed to abolitionist food and land justice practices.
THE UNDOCUBLACK NETWORK
#ImmigrationIsABlackIssue—and the UndocuBlack Network is leading the charge for the full liberation of those who are Black and currently or formerly undocumented across the diaspora—and is making their demands clear on a local and national level. Since its inception in 2016, the multi-generational network has centered its work on challenging marginalizing narratives around Black migration, advocating for policies that positively impact the UndocuBlack community and its wellness.
The UndocuBlack Network’s vision is to build:
- a political and social home for the Black diaspora that comes in many shades of brown
- a truly inclusive immigrant rights and racial justice movement that advocates for the rights of the Black diaspora and provides healing spaces and community to those with intersecting identities.
The UndocuBlack Network develops members’ leadership through training and programming, builds community power through advocacy and organizing and cultivates strategic alliances to advance policies that affect their daily lives. For example, in partnership with Haitian Bridge Alliance, the UndocuBlack Network led a successful campaign for re-designation of “Temporary Protected Status” for Haiti in 2021 and continued with its implementation in 2022.
In response to this time of political crisis and increased targeting, criminalization and deportations of community members, the UndocuBlack Network launched a Mental Wellness Initiative. They also facilitate resource sharing and provide policy and Know Your Rights information about ICE to empower and protect undocumented communities.
The UndocuBlack Network has been a North Star Fund grantee since 2016 and most recently received a three-year grant from the Let Us Breathe Fund. We’re honoring the UndocuBlack Network for their tireless organizing for justice for Black undocumented immigrants.