S.O.U.L Sisters Leadership Collective was piloted in 2014, out of a need for gender-specific programming that met the unique needs of girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth. After dissolving in December of 2022, our website now serves as a history of our work.
Posted by Acacia Rodriguez on November 17, 2022
Dear Community Members, As we reflect on the legacy of where we began as an organization, it is with care and pride that we announce the closing and sunsetting of S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective by June 2023 at the close of our fiscal year. S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective (SSLC) was piloted in 2014, out of a need for gender-specific programming...
Posted by Acacia Rodriguez on August 1, 2022
This edition of the Youth Justice Corner is from Deja Jones, our NYC Restorative Justice Fellow at S.O.U.L Sisters Leadership Collective (S.O.U.L.). Deja is a dynamic poet and passionate organizer. She has questions about Brittney Griner, the two-time gold medalist and center for the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team, who is currently detained in Russia. Deja has previously joined the WNBA...
Posted by Acacia Rodriguez on July 31, 2022
For this installment of Youth Justice, we’re sharing an essay from our NYC Youth Organizer, Afia! Afia has worked with S.O.U.L. while navigating her way through school toward building her career. Frequent visitors to our social media may remember her as one of the talented panelists we had when speaking with the Vera Institute about Expanding Fair Access to the ...
“S.O.U.L. Sister’s Leadership Collective organizes in New York City (NYC) and Miami, with staff from each location having a wide variety of needs to support their care. We are Black and Brown people across the gender spectrum, whose experiences are informed and contextualized within our locations, yet the theme of our overarching struggle is the fight against the state for bodily autonomy….”
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We are enraged that Bill Cosby and other abusers frequently do not face appropriate repercussions for their crimes against women and gender expansive folks. Also, keeping him locked away does not repair the damage he’s done to the women who came forward as survivors of his violence, nor heal the damage done to the wider community in which he caused harm. Monsters, after being shut in the closet, don’t just disappear forever. The trauma they caused still needs healing…
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On January 29th, 2021, video footage of a Rochester Police Department officer pepper spraying a 9-year-old Black girl sparked deep sadness and outrage in our community. This violence occurred while the Rochester Police Department was responding to a call that was made requesting support for a family related dispute. In the footage, this Black girl clearly names being in physical pain and emotional distress begging for her father; as officers handcuff her and demand she stop acting like a child she cries, “I am a child!”.
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