About Voices
Our Mission
We are committed to providing culturally responsible and healing centered resources, services, and supports to individuals, families and communities who are impacted by systemic oppression, poverty, and incarceration.
Our Voices
We understand the need for culturally appropriate and healing-centered approaches to overcoming the many challenges that arise in our communities as responses to systemic oppression and racism, including the trauma, poverty, and violence that have followed. Our experiences uniquely equip us to understand and respond to our community issues. Our work centers Black people, families, and communities from a perspective that unapologetically lifts healing and opportunity.
Founded and led by people of color, Voices of Our Sisters is a culturally specific- Black-led and Black-centered- organization that is committed to using a lens that is both healing centered and culturally affirming to amplify the voices of and opportunities for Black women, youth, and families working to build lives beyond racism and poverty. Our work is greatly enhanced by our perspective as we interweave efforts to advance racial equity, to support youth and families, and to provide interventions and alternatives to juvenile legal system involvement. The voices, knowledge, and experiences of those who have been impacted by enduring racial inequities are at the center of our work, including in staffing and program design. Our work considers the multitude of systemic barriers to opportunities and success experienced by communities of color, and how these barriers impact access to and retention in programs designed to uplift. Our perspective ensures that our work advances racial equity and addresses systemic racism by boldly providing services that are healing-centered and culturally-affirming. We are proud of our ability to use a unique framework that recognizes the needs of Black youth and families as unique, varied, and complex using responses that are also unique, varied, and complex. We are focused on ensuring that Black youth and families have access to programs and services that recognize the existence of implicit racial bias, while increasing the resources that are unbiased to the detriment of Black youth, families and communities. Voices of Our Sisters is unique because it is founded, led, and operated by people who have been directly or indirectly impacted by addiction, incarceration and/ or poverty. We believe that the commitment and knowledge acquired through this lived experience is unique and revolutionary.
House of Grace
One way we fulfill this mission is through our work to support Veterans and their families who are experiencing homelessness in our House of Grace program in East Orange and Newark, New Jersey. At the House of Grace, our team provides life altering housing, peer support, job readiness, and financial literacy services for 20 Veteran community members. Our goal is to bridge the gap to wellness, housing stability, and economic success. By including the unique voices and experiences of each Veteran, our team provides housing services centered on principles of housing first and sets the stage for them to meet critical needs and begin to thrive. We are proud of our core value to provide services that are holistic, culturally relevant and responsible, and healing centered.
2024 house of grace Impact
38 Veterans housed
14 Veteran women
9 dependents
8 Veterans moved to permanent housing
6 Veterans referred a higher level of care
Supportive Services
2000+ case management hours
62 peer recovery groups
48 job readiness groups
$4,800 in moving expenses/ furniture
Pathways 2 opportunity
We deliver a holistic and multifaceted reentry programming for youth who are returning to their families and communities in Baltimore and Prince George's counties in Maryland. This project recognizes the complex needs of youth who are detained and transitioning to their families and communities from periods of confinement and the often-devastating long-term impacts of incarceration that they experience as a result. Through P2O, we provide evidence-based wrap-around services- both pre and post release- that are grounded in youth development and trauma-informed principles, increasing the likelihood of successful reentry outcomes and decreased recidivism.
The program model centers the too often silenced voices and complex experiences of youth and families who are impacted by the criminal legal system, especially those from diverse communities that are also impacted by racism, historic marginalization, and economic oppression. It provides a trauma-informed response for youth who frequently must return to families struggling with poverty, substance abuse, housing insecurity, and unresolved mental health disabilities. And to neighborhoods where there are few supportive programs, high crime rates, and poorly performing schools. The project also addresses the need for increased measures to protect public safety which is often compromised when youth leave out-of-home placements without being afforded necessary supportive services upon reentering their communities. It also increases opportunities for youth to have to support, guidance and resources needed to reduce recidivism.
"More than 6% of the people incarcerated in Maryland are in prison for crimes committed when they were under 18, which is twice the national average. Nine out of ten people imprisoned in Maryland's prisons for crimes that they committed before age 18 are people of color." (NPR)
Need Technical Assistance?
Events
Support our work
By contributing time, resources, or advocacy efforts, you can make a lasting impact in helping families and communities to rebuild their lives.
Donate
Volunteer
Advocacy
Provide Housing Solutions
Offer Employment Opportunities
Support Mental Health and Healthcare Services
Engage in Peer Support