We have witnessed so many of you — also nonprofit leaders, artists, organizers, consultants, lawyers, poets, parents, comadres, tíos, and cousins — call out your own organizations and others, take to the streets and the suites to call for real, radical change. Having spent lifetimes grieving, chanting, singing, teaching and fighting alongside Chicago’s Black and Brown organizers and activists, we have learned that what we need most is each other. 
 
But what does sustained equity in action look like? It starts with a liberated vision of society. Activist and organizer Mariame Kaba recently wrote in a NYTimes Op Ed, “People like me who want to abolish prisons and police...have a vision of a different society, built on cooperation instead of individualism, on mutual aid instead of self-preservation.” The current awareness and demand for an abolitionist framework is just one example of the power of grassroots organizing to shift our understanding of what’s possible, and to embrace a collective radical imagination. In Chicago, where Kaba lived and organized for many years, we are clear that our readiness and willingness to work together to find equitable solutions for local challenges causes ripple effects throughout the entire ecosystem.