After Incarceration is led by formerly incarcerated community members who bring nontraditional approaches to social justice. We work with young people impacted by incarceration, whether directly, through a family member, or through the wider ripple of a society that relies on excessive punishment for public safety. We also work with their families and with mentors who have lived experience and can show them a better way forward. That means teaching active nonviolence, supporting parents and families, and building real paths home for young people caught up in the criminal legal system. We connect with them before release and stay with them after.
The Seed Fund fixes that.
How your gift works
You give once. Your gift goes into the Seed Fund. That's the only step that needs you.
Then the fund keeps working:
- We do the work. The fund pays for nonviolence trainings, family support, mentor time, and staying connected with young people before and after release.
- The grant pays us back. Once the work is done, the grant returns the money to the fund.
- The money goes out again. The same dollars pay for the next round of work.
Over a three-to-five-year grant, this cycle repeats again and again. A $100 gift doesn't pay for $100 of work one time. It keeps paying for work for as long as the grant lasts.
Why now
This March, we brought our community to Selma and Montgomery for Kingian Nonviolence training. We studied where the movement was won. We stood at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and gathered by the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Young people and families who have been shaped by incarceration learned to fight injustice without destroying each other or themselves.
That work is ready to grow. Larger public grants are within reach, and they could bring this training, family support, and mentorship to far more young people across the Hudson Valley. But we can only accept those grants if we have money on hand to do the work first.
The Seed Fund is what stands between us and that next step. Every gift now opens the door to grants we couldn't take on before, and keeps working for years after.
We've shown we can carry state-funded work. The next grants are larger, and they're within reach. What they require is cash to front the work. Our goal is $20,000.
Who we are
Our founder, Jose Pineda, served 21 years in New York State prisons. Together, our staff carry more than a century of lived prison experience. We are formerly incarcerated community members bringing nontraditional approaches to social justice. We don't speak for the people we serve. We come from the same place.
Give once. Watch it work for years.
After Incarceration • Newburgh, NY • Fiscally sponsored by Movement Strategy Center
