Vanessa Ly met Ayana Aubourg in the summer of 2015 during a pilot project created by incarcerated mothers for girls impacted by familial incarceration. Both held experiences with the justice system themselves, with Ayana having grown up with an incarcerated father, and Vanessa being involved with the justice system herself. The project brought together a group of young, justice-involved women. They saw potential in the program, and by the end of the summer, they had taken leadership, created their own curriculum, and built a six-week summer intensive for young women and girls in Boston, naming themselves Sisters Unchained.
Their first summer cohort consisted of three young women, two with incarcerated parents, and one who had been involved in the justice system herself. Their cohort doubled in size in year two from three girls to six. Now, ten years later, a typical cohort consists of twenty-five youth.
Known as the Transformative Leadership Program, Sisters Unchained brings together youth with incarcerated parents to improve mental health, develop political and self-awareness, and foster artistic expression through visual arts, poetry, digital media, and other mediums for creative outlets. The team leads workshops on processing the challenges, grief, trauma and compassion that may come with having an incarcerated parent, as well as informational sessions that help youth gain a deeper understanding of the history of the prison system, and how current policies shape them and their families’ experiences.
At the beginning, Vanessa thought it wouldn’t become anything more than a summer passion project. The team loved the relationships they were building with the participating girls, but they all had other jobs, and had no idea what it would take to establish a nonprofit. As the years passed, the girls who had been with them since the start were approaching high school graduation and in need of more support to navigate this transitionary period. “We were their only support system at this time, so we were faced with the task of helping them fill out college applications and navigating financial aid. We ended up driving them to school and trying to raise some money to take them dorm shopping and help them get settled,” remembered Vanessa.
Around this time, Sisters Unchained had begun receiving funding from The Lenny Zakim Fund in 2018. It was in joining the LZF community and forming a relationship with former LZF Executive Director Jude Goldman, that the idea of establishing Sisters Unchained as a nonprofit formed. Jude pushed them to file for 501c3 status and stabilize their programming, allowing them to be better able to advocate for and support their growing community of youth.
LZF’s support proved to be invaluable. “The girls kept coming back and we kept growing and they needed more,” Vanessa shared, “I went to every single Zakim class that was offered. I met with Jude and she taught me how to do a budget and gave me pointers on what to say to donors and how to make asks.”
Since gaining 501c3 status in 2020, the organization has continued to evolve. Alongside their summer intensive program for young women aged 14-18, Sisters Unchained has now launched Sister Legacy – a two-year program for high school juniors and seniors who are members of Sisters Unchained. They provide mentoring, weekly after school drop in spaces, and support with higher education or creating a plan for after graduating high school; as well as a stipend. The newest development is the Sister Legacy mentorship program – students are paired with accomplished women in Boston who mentor them through their last two years of high school and provide another resource and place of support.
Graduates of the Sister Legacy program can also return as peer facilitators and remain an active part of the community. Speaking about one of her graduated students, Vanessa said, “She can still come and be with us. She has security and a constant place she can come to, since everything else moves and shifts in her life.” This student continues to work as a peer facilitator with Sisters Unchained, supporting younger girls just as Vanessa and Ayana have supported her.
Ten years in, it has not always been easy for Sisters Unchained. Like many other grassroots organizations, this past year has brought funding challenges. With widespread funding cuts, there often is just not enough financial support to go around. Through this, the team is grateful for the support of their volunteers, who are hosting a fundraiser series and getting the word out about Sisters Unchained.
The organization has changed so much from Vanessa and Ayana’s initial summer program. A small four-week workshop series has become so much more – girls have access to year-round programming, opportunities to engage in workshops covering everything from political education to mindfulness to entrepreneurship, as well as art-making, writing, and field trips that foster creative expression and collective healing.
Despite all that has changed and evolved, the love and care that Vanessa and the rest of the Sisters Unchained team bring to their work remains the same as it was that first summer. “We keep them in our community. We love them, and they want to stay and they keep showing up… I don’t have any siblings, but we would take [the girls] with us when we went somewhere, like little sisters.”
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Current need at Sisters Unchained include funding and donations and collaborations with other organizations working in similar spaces. To learn more about their work, visit their website here.
