How would organizers, artists, and formerly incarcerated women work together to help free mothers for mothers day?  

Understanding the Issues / Building Collaborative Teams

Throughout the spring, formerly incarcerated women at the PPC worked with organizers from the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund to understand the campaign goals

Creating Art/Media to Raise Awareness and Funding for the Bail Out

Building from their own experiences in the criminal justice system, the fellows created a powerful series of posters, audio pieces, t-shirts, and more to help raise funds and awareness about the Mama's Day Bail Out campaign

Supporting and Celebrating the Bail Out by Organizing Exhibits, Parades,
​and Symposiums 

After the bail out, PPC fellows organized a series of exhibitions, press conferences, parades, and symposiums to celebrate the Bail Out and call for and end to cash bail
Video By Wren Rene :: wrenrene.com :: vimeo.com/wrenrene
HOW THE COLLABORATION WORKED: 

Creating Art and Media Campaigns
to Support the Bail Out

During each cohort, the PPC partners with organizations across the city to help propel and advance their advocacy campaigns. In the spring of 2018, the PPC acted as consultants to, and partners with, the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund. During our time together, we:  Met with the bail fund organizers to further understand their work. Created art and advocacy pieces to amplify their campaign (helping to raise over $95,000 to bail mothers out prior to Mother’s Day)
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GET YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL T-SHIRT AND SUPPORT THE BAIL FUND!: 
These shirts were made in collaboration with the amazing Philadelphia Printworks. 100% of the profits are donated to the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund to support their work to free women and advocate to end cash bail. 
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T-shirt artwork by Josey S. Diaz and the PPC's Women in Re-Entry Program.

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The Bail Out: Beginning With A Bus Stop

In support of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund's Mama's Day Bail Out campaign, PPC fellows went to Riverside Correctional Facility and transformed an isolated bus stop, where women being released are dropped off with a token and a dollar, into a beautiful art exhibit and welcome home party for those women bailed out. When the women were released, the women of the PPC and Bail Fund Organizers greeted everyone with hugs, flowers, resources, and powerful peer support. In this case, the women's art, and presence helped set the stage for this truly beautiful and heart-breaking moment. 

Welcome Home!
The Free Our Mothers Parade and Press Conference

On May 10th, two days after the bail out, the PPC fellows organized and hosted a press conference at City Hall to celebrate the freedom of those bailed out and to publically call for an end to cash bail.  Formerly incarcerated women, including some who had just been bailed out, shared their testimonies about how incarceration impacts women, their families, and communities in different, and often devastating ways. After the press conference people took t-shirts (designed in collaboration with Philadelphia Print Works), posters, photo banners and marched down Broad St, taking up two lanes of traffic for the #FreeOurMothers parade. 

"Most importantly, we were there. We felt like we made our mark, that we have proof to show that we are worthy of being heard, that we are not alone and proud to show the world who we are and how we feel.  Our past is our past. Today, tomorrow are what should matter. The parade reminded us NOT to be ashamed, but to celebrate who we are and the powerful work we are creating together. We want women in the future who are incarcerated, who are held on cash bail, to know that they are not alone- that we are here to support in any way we can." 
​- PPC Fellows Joint Statement

Ending With the Future:
​Women In Reentry Day 2018

The parade ended at Broad Street Ministry with a final group cheer before heading inside for the Women in Reentry Day symposium. The goals of the symposium were to:
  • Bring together a coalition of partners to imagine and demand how Philadelphia can better support women impacted by the criminal justice system 
  • To bring awareness to the issues that returning citizens/women have;
  • To increase the knowledge of resources that may be available upon release;
  • To build and foster connections
  • To bring people together to discuss urgent issues that need addressing and try to come up with solutions and ways to help the brokenness.

The ideas generated from the symposium are being transformed into the Bill of Rights for Formerly Incarcerated Women: A Blueprint for Keeping Us Free. Add your own ideas for the bill of rights in the form below!

    What do you think?
    What can Philadelphia do to keep women free?  

About our Partner:
Philadelphia
Community Bail Fund

The Mission of the Bail Fund is to End Cash bail in Philadelphia. Until that day, they post bail for residents who cannot afford to pay. 
Support their work HERE!
SPRING 2018 PPC LEAD FELLOW:  FAITH BARTLEY
SPRING 2018 PPC ADVOCACY FELLOWS: LATYRA  BLAKE, THERESA SAUNDERS, NIKKI LEE SMITH, AMY Tlapa

​In honor and loving memory of Amy Tlapa. We miss you! 
Made possible by the time, energy and love of so many people, and through the incredibly generous support of the following organizations