a history of freedom side
In 2021, seven members of the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI) gathered in a Zoom room to imagine a place for young children and their families in the prison abolition movement. This group of founders included caretakers of young children with incarcerated family members, long-time organizers in the movement to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania, and elementary school educators. Out of this meeting was born the vision of an abolitionist elementary school for children who are directly impacted by mass incarceration.
This group of founders decided to call themselves the Vision Team. In the following years the Vision Team met regularly as a group of volunteers to build out the vision and mission of the school, develop organizational infrastructure, and fundraise to get the school open.
Over the years since that first meeting, Freedom Side has crossed many milestones including:
Developing our organizational infrastructure;
Launching a monthly support group for adults with incarcerated family members and running a parallel childcare program;
Hosting community events;
Completing our 501(c)(3) spinoff;
Fundraising in partnership with Resource Generation Philadelphia;
Recruiting a Board of Directors who are deeply involved in the project and;
Hiring staff in the fall of 2024 who are working to open the school!
