Dear Friends,

Because of people like you, communities across the country utilize NRCAT resources to host film screenings, facilitate discussions, and conduct trainings that turn moral urgency into real advocacy. Your donation today towards our $30,000 Year-End Challenge Match supports the "education for advocacy" mission that stands at NRCAT's core.

Throughout 2025, NRCAT made nearly a dozen mini-grants to support houses of worship and religious organizations in screening The Strike, a film that tells the story of the 2011 and 2013 prison hunger strikes to end solitary in California. At its peak, 30,000 incarcerated people took part in the strike, demonstrating bravery and great personal sacrifice to say, “we refuse to back down.”

The film premiered in April 2024 and has now had over 100 live-audience screenings across North America, and it is available to watch on PBS. NRCAT Board member Dolores Canales and NRCAT U.S. Prisons Program Advisory Council member Jack Morris (both solitary survivors and activists featured in The Strike) have spoken at numerous public screenings of the film, with NRCAT staff joining them at several of these. 

Your donation during our year-end challenge match will allow NRCAT to provide robust educational activities and trainings in 2026, including mini-grants to cover the cost of a faith organization or house of worship screening this incredible documentary. The film, which recently won an Anthem Gold Award for Human & Civil Rights: Documentary or Film category, continues to educate, resonate, and inspire.

If you want to screen The Strike locally in your faith organization or house of worship, you too can apply for a small grant from NRCAT to support event expenses and community advertising. In addition, we will send you an exclusive NRCAT resource: a Viewing and Discussion Guide, complete with questions specific to faith communities. Please contact Nicole Capozziello for more information.

Thank you for fueling this transformative work. More than ever, we need stories of resilience and hope that remind us of our collective power when we refuse to back down.

Sincerely,

The NRCAT staff

P.S. Look for an announcement in 2026 about a new feature-length drama, Newborn, that tells the story of a man released from prison after seven years in solitary. Newborn is the work of noted filmmaker Nate Parker and features stars David Oyelowo and Olivia Washington. Johnny Perez, the Director of NRCAT’s U.S. Prisons Program, was the moderator for the film's initial screening in New York City in November.