Advocacy Finalists

2023 Advocacy Finalists:

Additionally, the organization passed the Fostering Higher Education Act that provides free college tuition (both two-year technical and four-year traditional) to individuals that have been in the Minnesota foster care system. Fostering Independence Grants (FIG), which allow Fosters to access this opportunity, were made available Fall of 2022 and throughout this academic year 489 Fosters in Minnesota have taken advantage of pursuing their dreams of an education.   

Most recently, during the 2023 legislative session, Foster Advocates championed the Survivor Benefits bill that would stop the current practice of counties seizing social security and retirement benefits from Fosters who have lost a parent. The proposed legislation would not only immediately work to halt this issue, but would create a trust for the funds to be accessed by Fosters upon their 18th birthday and repay the funds that were stolen from Fosters.

Foster Advocates’ research has shown that an estimated 1,400 children in foster care are eligible for federal Supplemental Social Security Income, largely due to receiving Survivor Benefits because of the death of a parent. However, under current law, child welfare agencies take this money and make children pay for their own foster care. Ending this practice and returning this significant investment back to Fosters can provide crucial economic stability for a population that faces multiple barriers, especially when the data in Minnesota shows us that 40% of Fosters transition into homelessness once they age out of care.

Foster Advocates is pushing to end this practice of theft and provide Fosters with the financial resources they are owed. This is not only a legal and moral issue, but this is also an equity issue. Fosters are OUR children. It is our responsibility to do right by them.

Gender Justice

In 2022, a District Court ruled in Gender Justice's favor in Doe v. MN, a case filed in 2019. This historic ruling expanded the right to abortion care in Minnesota just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The court held that the Minnesota Constitution protects not just a fundamental right to choose abortion, but also a fundamental right to access abortion care and blocked enforcement of several laws restricting abortion access.

Gender Justice also provides tools to ensure transgender students and their families can advocate for their rights in school and engages in policy advocacy on a range of important issues. Gender Justice is a leading member of UnRestrict Minnesota, the only multi-racial, cross-sector coalition working to protect, expand, and destigmatize access to abortion care and reproductive healthcare in Minnesota. This year, Gender Justice was instrumental in passing critical legislation that overturned Minnesota’s abortion restrictions and dismantled 50 years of anti-abortion policies. Gender Justice also helped pass legislation to protect patients and providers of abortion access and gender affirming care from out of state attacks.

Gender Justice is leading the fight to ensure that people of all genders have a meaningful right to bodily autonomy, safety, health, and opportunity.

In 2019, Phumulani received funds from the Bush Foundation’s first Bush Community Innovation Fund, which allowed the organization to reach out to over 2,250 community members at the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Phumulani’s Healing Circle project in 2019 recognized domestic violence activists who work with African Immigrant communities, including Somalia, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Morocco, and East and Central as well as West African countries.  We successfully recruited and trained facilitators with key characteristics above all others, compassion, empathy, compelling, communication skills, and experience working with domestic violence survivors.

Phumulani’s Healing Circles’ program saw a remarkable 89% graduation rate with all participants, while also spurring a call from community members for more Healing Circles that are expanded both men and women, as well as youth. The organization also had some participants who reported de-escalation of suicide ideation and substance use, due to the feeling of community, and to date, they have over a dozen core women’s groups that have continued to gather due to this initial project.

This past year, Phulumani made funding available to women and young girls for approximately 151 individual women ($1,800 a month per woman) and 75 women and children ($1,900 a month). The organization also provided access to a full range of social services for women and families transitioning into stable housing before, during, and after the transition. Phumulani has successfully advocated for Domestic Violence Housing First. We continue to advocate on behalf of those who due to the endemic nature of structural racism, have challenges accessing housing.

Phumulani believes in the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go further, go as a community”, and we value our working collaborative partnerships to leverage the highest level of impact. Community Partners, include: the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS); the Minnesota African Women Association (MAWA); the African Minnesota Women Awareness Group (AMWAG); Voice of East African Women; Minnesota Humanities Center; Cultural Wellness Center; Standpoint; Youth link Minnesota: From Homeless to Hopeful; Sexual Violence Center; WISE; and Oromo Community Center. They are also a member program of national and local Domestic Violence prevention coalition (Violence Free Minnesota, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault).