Southern Funds Tour 2016

Southern Funds Coordinator, Anise Simon, and Membership Director, Sierra Harris, participated in a 10-day road trip across the South, visiting five Southern Cohort member organizations and offering onsite organizational infrastructure support.

The trip began with a visit to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Jackson where Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund members hosted a reproductive justice forum. Anise and Sierra continued to Georgia where they met with Magnolia Fund members in Athens and Atlanta and generated ideas to support their new board of directors, grow their volunteer base, and strategically partner with other community organizations.

In ARC-Southeast’s Atlanta-based office Sierra and Anise witnessed the compassionate support provided by ARC’s new Healthline, which serves seven states across the region. They participated in F.I.R.E. (Funding, Information, Resources, and Empowerment!), a monthly consciousness raising chat.

In Durham, North Carolina, Sierra and Anise answered Carolina Abortion Fund’s strategic questions about job descriptions, management techniques, and opportunities for skill-sharing with abortion funds across the country. The trip ended in Richmond, Virginia, where Anise and Sierra attended Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project’s volunteer orientation which emphasized reproductive, racial, and economic justice issues facing community members.

Participating in the daily work with member organizations and witnessing their beautiful communities through this 10-day trip strengthened relationships and further highlighted the value of Southern collaboration.