Kentavius Street
Philanthropy
Foster America
Every child deserves a safe and loving family. Throughout their careers, co-founders Sherry Lachman and Marie Zemler Wu noticed that a small number of exceptional leaders in child welfare were making a difference, but that the sector as a whole urgently needed fundamental change. The system continued to place too many children of color and low-income children in foster care who could be kept safely at home, shuffle children between multiple foster homes and institutions, and further traumatize them at each step. In response, they launched Foster America in 2016 to bring new energy, attention, and innovation to child welfare. The goal was to develop sufficient leadership capacity and attract diverse talent to tackle the sector’s most challenging problems at scale and prevent the effects of its failures, including intergenerational poverty, chronic homelessness, and inequities in the criminal justice system.
Until Freedom is an intersectional social justice organization rooted in the leadership of diverse people of color to address systemic and racial injustice. At Until Freedom, we believe that those closest to the pain are closest to the solution, therefore, we focus on investing in those who are the most directly impacted by cyclical poverty, inequality, and state violence. We are a clearinghouse for advocates, new & budding activists, seasoned community organizers, students, movement lawyers, entertainers and artists, policy experts, formerly & currently incarcerated individuals, and survivors of gun violence to work linearly to uplift all of our people. Everyone is worthy, everyone is needed to win.