Friend,
We are excited to celebrate a very special day.
Today, June 14th is the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Community Justice Action Fund, and we can’t think of a better person to celebrate with than you.
Me in Cosmo almost five years ago talking about starting CJAF
to change the way we talk about gun violence.
Five years ago, I founded the Community Justice Action Fund to change the conversation on gun violence prevention by leading with the people closest to the pain of everyday gun violence.
We built this organization hand in hand with community organizers of gun violence to create one of the largest people of color-led violence prevention networks of activists in America, with over 30,000 identified supporters like you committed to ending gun violence from the ground up.
For five years, we've trained, empowered and propelled leaders into action from Baltimore, to Houston, and from Los Angeles to Kenosha. We have worked with policy makers across the country to reduce gun violence through legislation. And we have mobilized the gun violence prevention movement to demand that police violence is gun violence.
We have worked tirelessly to transform this movement to center our communities and these are just some of the highlights of the past five years:
- We doubled our staff in the past year and expanded our work across five key states: Texas, California, North Carolina, Maryland, and Wisconsin.
- We testified at the first Congressional Hearing on Community Gun Violence in U.S. history to elevate the crisis of gun violence in communities of color.
- In partnership with Amnesty International, we testified internationally to elevate the issue of gun violence in America to leaders across the world, including leaders of the United Nations and global human rights leaders.
- We created the Invest in Us Coalition, and together with our partners, pushed President Biden to take historic Executive Action, include 210 million in his FY22 budget, commit $5 billion in his American Jobs Plan and roll out guidance to prioritize millions of federal dollars to help end gun violence in our communities.
- We helped launch the Fund Peace Campaign, that centers community based organizations and empowered them to advocate for over $5 billion in local funds to end gun violence and have already secured over $500 million in 2021 alone.
- Through our Elect Justice campaign with Revolve Impact, we led successful 2020 electoral efforts in Texas and Wisconsin, and we reached out to over 1.6 million voters in communities most impacted by gun violence.
- We started our Speakers Bureau, and since 2019, have trained and recruited more than 500 frontline and local gun violence prevention leaders in how to expand their advocacy, and share their expertise to policymakers and media.
- We engaged over 50,000 viewers with the By Design education campaign trainings by bringing awareness around community based solutions.
- We started Policymakers for Peace, a national nonpartisan network with over two dozen state and local elected officials of color representing 12 states working together to change the conversation on gun violence prevention.
- We mobilized against state sanctioned violence in our communities with the Police Violence is Gun Violence campaign in response to the brutal police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others. This effort gained support of over 70 gun violence prevention organizations, and reframed police violence as a critical part of the fight to end gun violence.
- We launched the “This Is Our Ground” campaign in partnership with Amnesty International to elevate the destructive outcomes of Stand Your Ground laws across the country and how they fuel violence against and within Black and brown communities across the country.
- We enlisted the support of celebrities, influencers and cultural leaders to amplify the need to address gun violence including Lady Gaga, Big Freedia, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and many more.
Our commitment to you is that we'll continue to help transform gun violence prevention for the next five years, and for our 5th Birthday, we hope you'll consider pitching in $55 to help us continue to create change from the ground up.
We have always known another world is possible, and we have been inspired by you all every step of the way.
We can't wait to continue to build power together.
Thanks for being part of our community.
In solidarity,
Amber Goodwin
Founder and Executive Director
P.S: Please save the date for our upcoming five year anniversary celebration on June 30, 2021 at 3:00 pm ET! RSVP here.
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