Summary
We have a new purpose statement!
We’re having a party!
Now is a great time to get involved!
Dear Abolition Apostles Supporters,
After 1.5 years of incredible, attentive, intentional work from so many people - including many of you! - we are delighted to share that we had a unanimous vote to approve the purpose statement for our collective! That means that our new purpose statement is officially:
To spark & support meaningful connections between people inside and outside prison in a way that transforms us all, rooted in our abolitionist belief that no one is disposable.
We hope to continually revisit this statement over time, incorporating feedback from our pen pals, and continue developing other structures to guide our work.
Thank you to everyone who made this possible! We’d especially like to thank the members of the structures working group, especially Dr. Aisha Rios, Kelsey Westbrook, Kelly Parry-Johnson, Angela Thomas, Jaden Janak, Audrey Gow, Brendon Donoho, Dan Smolkin, and Lisa Humphries. We know it was a challenging and sometimes overwhelming process for many of us, and we are so grateful to be part of a community that brought such care to this transition work.
This Calls for Celebration!
We’ll be hosting a Purpose Party & Celebration on Sunday, October 22, to toast to new beginnings in style! *Bring a beverage to toast with and be ready for some fun!* As part of the celebration, we’ll also be doing some fun brainstorming activities to begin the process of choosing a new name for our collective! That’s right - now that we’ve aligned around a purpose statement, it’s time to pick a new name! We’ll have some fun kick-offs to this process at this party, but if you can’t make it, we’ll send out a form afterwards where you can participate.
There has never been a better time to be getting involved in this collective! While this transition has been challenging, we have made it through with even stronger relationships, practices, and sense of possibility. So we’d like to take a moment to invite everyone here - especially those who have never been to a gathering before - to attend one of our upcoming gatherings! This work truly requires all of us, so we’d love to be in community with you at one of these soon!
Upcoming Events
For a full list of all Zoom links & upcoming events – check out the Calendar on our website HERE!
Here are our upcoming gatherings:
All Hands General Meeting on October 11th at 8pm ET at this Zoom link.
Purpose Party on October 22 at 4pm ET at this Zoom link.
Support Squad Meeting on October 23 at 8pm ET on the theme of risk at this Zoom link.
This is a space for outside penpals to connect with one another and support each other on some of the challenges that might arise in your penpaling relationships and/or your abolition work more broadly.
Supporting & Coordinating with Outside Penpals Discussion on November 14th at 7pm ET at this Zoom link:
Our network grew very quickly, and we want to take a moment to figure out how we might follow up with our outside penpals! Are people still penpaling? What challenges are people facing that we could collectively try to support? This will be a session to begin discussing this work. Any and all welcome!
Finances Discussion on November 15 at 8pm ET at this Google Meet link
This is an opportunity to get plugged into how finances work and gauge capacity/interest for taking on more projects using the money we bring in
Thanks again for being part of this community, and we can’t wait to be in community with you at one of these upcoming gatherings!
Best,
Transition Team