Envisioning Our Future with CCF Advocates

In 2018, CCF launched our Women Influencing Systems & History (WISH) Advocacy Training Program. Despite the progress made by the criminal justice reform movement in the last ten years, we saw that representation of impacted women was still sorely lacking. Our goal was to work with women who had felt the impacts of incarceration in their families and communities, helping them turn their lived experience into advocacy expertise. 

In the two years since WISH launched, CCF has trained over 80 women. Many of them have gone on to play major leadership roles in their communities and criminal justice-related campaigns. To celebrate our women’s advocacy and highlight the work they are currently doing, we sat down for a conversation with CCF’s  Community Organizer, Ivelisse Gilestra, and WISH Alumna, Darlene Jackson. 

Ivelisse, who has worked with CCF since 2016, is the founder of New York City’s chapter of All of Us or None, co-chair of the grassroots group SoS (Survivors of the System), winner of the 2018 Citizens Against Recidivism award, and is a JustLeadershipUSA Leading with Conviction Fellow. Darlene, who had already been doing advocacy work when she joined WISH, has put her training to amazing use - she is now a Steering Committee member of the Beyond Rosie’s campaign, and is running for City Council for District 18 in the Bronx. 

Read the interview here: https://bit.ly/3jxZRBU