January 2023

Serve Our Sisters Events Draw Hundreds on MLK Holiday Weekend

Color Of Change report

Hundreds of Color Of Change volunteers and community members turned out for “Serve Our Sisters” events in seven cities during the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend earlier this month to pack care packages for women returning to communities after being incarcerated.

Started in 2018, COC’s Serve Our Sisters combines community service with Black joy around a holiday that traditionally is a day of service in Black communities. Serve Our Sisters programs are a call to action as they shine a light on the disproportionate rate at which Black women are locked up and what they need for a successful return home. 

The events, held in Atlanta; Miami; Tampa; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Los Angeles; and Raleigh, N.C., attracted people of all ages and backgrounds – from sorority and church members to high school and college students. Members of the Cheyney University men’s and women’s basketball teams and high school students from Revolution School also participated at the Serve Our Sisters event in Philadelphia. Cheyney University is the nation’s oldest HBCU, founded in 1837. And alumni chapter members from Howard University and Fort Valley State University also had a large presence at the events.

With music pumping in the background, volunteers worked in groups to stuff care packages with personal items such as soap, toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, lip balm, journals and other products. Volunteers also wrote notes of encouragement that were placed in each bag.

Through the power of their actions, volunteers at the seven events packed a combined total of care packages to aid about 14,000 women as they helped to build the “beloved community,” as Dr. King termed it.

The bags will be distributed in each city by organizations that provide direct service to women returning from incarceration. Those organizations include Barred Business in Atlanta, Coco Life in Philadelphia, Operation Restoration and Mission Rebirth in New Orleans, The Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles, the Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women in Raleigh, Smile Trust Miami in Miami and Alpha House of Tampa in Tampa.

“Thanks to the support of so many people, Serve Our Sisters is helping to move our community to take action,” said Shannon Talbert, senior organizing director with COC’s Movement Building Team. “We are building organizing squads of volunteers who embrace the power of issue-led campaigns and community service. We are grateful to all of our partners and volunteers for their commitment to center Black women, uplift our stories and celebrate our magic. We are excited to see the program continue to grow.”