Greetings Family, Friends, and Supporters!

This has been a tough year! But the love from our community always outshines the shadow of crisis. Your support has cut through the darkness of not having what we need and deserve. You are not just a light at the end of the tunnel, you have lit our path the whole way through. We are proud and honored to announce that, because of your undying energy and mad love...

We have reached our goal for the furlough!

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for hosting house parties! Thank you for asking your networks for donations! Thank you for attending R&S events! Thank you for suggesting foundations so we could increase our grant writing by 200%! Thank you for extending your expertise to us! Thank you for selflessly asking for your birthday gifts to be donations to R&S! Your bravery, generosity, and sacrifice are the reason the revolutionary work of R&S will not be extinguished.

With the money raised from the furlough, we have survived the most difficult time in our organization's history. R&S will continue lifting up our community and being a stronghold for the next generation of leaders in Boston...what you count on us for! R&S can assure you that we will be able to hold a long awaited spring session...we will bloom with renewed spirit and ambition! 

There is more work to be done!! The funds we raised during the furlough represent only a portion of our annual budget, so we have a long way to go!! It is with great sadness that we are also preparing to leave the Freedom House, our home for the past 3 years, because there is no longer enough space for us to run full programming. We have launched a full-force space search and are asking you to please contact us with any leads on free or cheap office and programming space in any of the working class neighborhoods of Boston.

As we move forward, we will continue to lean on you: our people. The work of fighting oppression is not over, and neither is fundraising for that work. Luckily, there are also many more celebrations and victories in our future as long as we keep working together! We are asking you to...

• Consider making a donation to Reflect & Strengthen in honor of someone you admire via mail or online! http://tinyurl.com/donaterands

• Do your online holiday shopping at GoodSearch.com and raise money for R&S! http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/reflect-and-strengthen

. You can receive discounts at some of the largest online retailers, & a portion of your purchase will be sent to us!

• Send us information on potential office and programming space

Thank you all the unique, creative, and passionate ways you support our dream...Reflect and Strengthen.

All our love,
The women of Reflect & Strengthen

Leaders in Boston call on our community to support an organization none of us can afford to lose

Since 2001, R&S has emerged as a critical space for Boston's young, working class women to build personal and political power.   Through a holistic organizing strategy grounded in healing, political education, artistic expression and collective action, R&S has helped transform the lives of its members and the community around them.  R&S is a vital platform for a new generation of women leaders who bring passion, courage and love to Boston's progressive movement.

Over the last year, the national economic downturn has had a severe impact on non-profit organizations such as Reflect and Strengthen.  As a small grassroots collective, the sudden loss of anticipated funding has cast the organization into financial crisis. R&S' three staff members have worked without pay since June, and as of September 1st, all programming is on indefinite freeze. The organization needs to raise $52,000 to restart its work.

As leaders of non-profit organizations across Boston, we are all too aware of the difficulties in maintaining community programming. But it is precisely because of these economic conditions that R&S cannot be allowed to fail.

For many young women, Reflect and Strengthen is a sole refuge from the daily stresses of growing up in an urban working class Boston.  With our communities under economic duress, R&S creates a safe space for girls and women to embrace their vitality and exercise their power.

We appeal to the broader community to help ensure that R&S will continue its unique programming.  We encourage you to contribute what you can, and to invite your friends and family to donate as well. Help organize a fundraiser, small or large, or help recruit new donors.  Join the dozens of people who have already responded to this crisis and have generated thousands of dollars in new donations.

R&S' financial needs are serious, but they are not insurmountable.  As a progressive community that has benefited so consistently from their presence, it becomes our obligation to help sustain our sisters.

Thank you for your interest in supporting Reflect and Strengthen.

Signed,

Molly Baldwin, ROCA
Kalila Barnett, Alternatives for Community and Environment
Cara Berg Powers Press Pass TV
Tina Cherry, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
Lael Chester, Citizens for Juvenile Justice
Josh Dohan Esq., Youth Advocacy Foundation
Jesus Gerena, Hyde Square Task Force
Jen Kiok, Spontaneous Celebrations
Seth Kirshenbaum, The City School
Darlene Lombos, Community Labor United
Jason Lydon, Community Church of Boston
Christine Maguire, Dorchester People for Peace
Joanna Marinova, Press Pass TV
Paul Marucs, Community Change, Inc.
Suren Moodliar, Mass Global Action
Gabriel Mugar Press Pass TV
Najma Nazyat, Boston Area Youth Organizing Project (BYOP)
Karla Nicholson, Haymarket People's Fund
Ruby Reyes, The City School
Horace Small, Union of Minority Neighborhoods
Aaron Tanaka, Boston Workers' Alliance
Mariama White-Hammond, Project Hip Hop