Carta de despedida

For a decade, we provided funding, resources, coaching, and other forms of support for cohorts of leaders and convened them to build relationships across communities, to access the spaciousness required for strategic thinking, and to build stronger movements. And now our digital library will continue to serve as a hub for the love, labor, and vision that went into the program’s design and container creation, the innovations and brilliance led by our participants and extended team, and our resources will help support ongoing and future organizing, movement building, relationship building, and capacity building. 

We did it. We came together as women with different histories, identities, and contexts, but who shared the same passion for justice and liberation for ourselves and our communities. We are women who knew that a world free of violence is not only possible but also necessary, and we dedicated our lives to defending and protecting our bodies, our people, and the earth. 

We came together not to continue as we always have done. We strived to learn, grow, and stretch. To co-create something new. To practice and experiment together. To build new relationships and plant new ideas. To dream together and make magic.We not only gathered, but we breathed together. Got more grounded in this land. And we created a place where BIPOC survivor-leaders felt seen, trusted, and held. Where the breadth and depth of what we collectively accomplished was constantly honored and celebrated.

Sometimes we found ourselves doing THE most, but at the root of that was our commitment as individuals and teams to welcome, hold, and support the whole person. You could feel this in the way we gathered, who we invited into the ecosystem, and how we relearned what it means to be a majority Black woman + queer team. 

In your journey ahead, we urge you to take care of yourselves. To shift important relationships from transactional to transformational. To fuel your inspiration every time a girl or woman isn’t living up to its full potential. To continue sharing and leading your organization, peers, friends and even your family on the path towards language liberation. To remember that a bold vision requires us to keep expanding our Beloved Community so that our vision for change never runs out of steam. And to pause, reflect, celebrate, and continue to move to end violence.

With love, power and hope,
Your Move To End Violence allies