We don’t just distribute news, we care about the causes our readers seek to engage in deeply. SawariMedia curates revolutionary strategies to engage our incarcerated subscribers with outside groups, legislative propopsals and campaigns in a variety of ways. We continually promote opportunities take action and equip our readers to be leaders.
HighlightHer With the support of Criminal Justice Innovations fund SawariMedia has collaborated with with Light To Life, a gender sensitive therapeutic organization, in order to provide women in prison with educational materials and self-care materials including self promoting affirmations, wellness logs, goal setting and habit tracking tools along with monetary support for creating artwork. HighlightHER seeks to assist people on the outside better understand the experiences of women in prison in order to advance social change.
Seeing Through the Bars SawariMedia produced a series of videos highlighting incarcerated Right2Vote Readers experiences in Michigan’s Gus Harrison and Kinross prisons during the initial year of the covid pandemic. This project partnered select prisoners with scholars from Kalamazoo College and New York University in order to illustrate people’s experiences while incarcerated with long indeterminate sentences during the initial year of the covid pandemic.
InsideOut Kalamazoo consolidates a book club of community members outside and inside of Michigan’s Dept. of Corrections to read books selected by incarcerated readers at no-cost to imprisoned participants. SawariMedia recruits participants in partnership with Kalamazoo College and hosts live discussions.
Vote by Mail in Jail where we recruit outside volunteers to mail election reminder postcards to eligible voters nationwide and curate materials to support eligible incarcerated voters across America including providing secure submission boxes to facility staff where eligible voters can submit election materials with less possibility for mailing delays. This program is completed majorly in partnership with Spread the Vote, Chicago Votes and Michigan’s Voter Access for All Coalition.
VoicEd podcast is produced in collaboration with incarcerated men and women across the country, Voices of Incarcerated Citizens Empowered. VoicEd is a podcast that amplifies the voices of our most vulnerable populations trapped in United States’ prisons, jails and detention centers. The battle is ongoing securing interview times and dates under corrections surveillance.
EIP Access is still a struggle for people incarcerated today. Guidance was published within prisoner newsletters in order to disseminate information to incarcerated citizens on how to access their stimulus support. SawariMedia partnered with several groups in order to host webinars, curate template forms, design FAQs and refer application assistance for people impacted for the CARES act of October 2020.
Corona CarePaks were distributed to dozens of Right2Vote readers who responded to the mutual aid effort addressing the lack of support for incarcerated citizens during the pandemic’s onset. The funds that made this program possible in 2020 were provided by the Detroit Justice Center.
OurStory 2020 Calendar adorned the walls of people in prisons all over the country during the most isolated year of the century worldwide. The calendar was a gift for those subscribers that had been reading SawariMedia’s newsletters for three years at that time, but it was so popular that requests for copies continue to come from people in prison today.