A Call to Action from Equality for Flatbush (E4F) Lead Organizer, Imani Henry

Dear E4F/B4G/BAN Community

Thank you for ALL your tremendous activism, leadership and financial support in 2018!  Our tiny grassroots organization could never built over 15 tenant associations, fight white supremacy and police violence in Brooklyn, produced over 75 videos, or keep small businesses on our blocks without all of the hard work of our 1500 +  volunteers.

But due to the rapid increase of tenant harassment and police violence this year coupled with our lack of paid staff and grant funding , E4F has fallen behind administratively.  As we have shared with you all this fall, E4F has accumulated a backlog of paralegal, investigative research, video-related, outreach, fundraising, etc tasks needed to support the numerous tenants , homeowners, small businesses and families impacted by police violence that are currently working within E4F.  Our plan is to focus for the next 2 months on these tasks and plan strategies to take our current campaigns to the next level in 2019.

So from January 1st 2019 – March 1st 2019 E4F will be playing Organizational Catch-Up.  This means:  

• There will be NO NEW INTAKES :  On average, E4F gets between 1-4 calls a day from community members facing harassment and displacement .  E4F will not be taking any NEW affordable housing / anti-displacement intakes for the next 2 months in order to focus  and catch up on backlog of tasks from our current campaigns . We will of course continue to make referrals to other trusted organizations and give as much assistance to people in crisis as we can but we will not have the capacity to launch new organizing or legal campaigns until March/April.  We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes community members who generally call us after they have exhausted more conventional resources.

• GET READY TO WORK: If you already are part of a legal case , tenant/homeowner/working group leader please expect there will be a strategy or planning session between January to March to catch up tasks and plan for next steps for 2019. In fact ALL E4F/BAN/B4G activists should expect more planning and strategy meetings during the winter and spring of 2019 . We really need your leadership and activism in order to step up the fight against police violence and gentrification.

• We urgently need OFFICE, administrative, fundraising , social media, video, etc VOLUNTEERS to help us catch on tasks.  If you have even a few hours a month – in person or remotely to spare to take on a single task or coordinate an area of work that would be greatly appreciated.  To volunteer contact: imani@equalityforflatbush.org or send a text to 646 820-6039 or Please feel free to Sign-up for an E4F working group: :https://goo.gl/forms/QLM1vPttvNojRnKk2

• We URGENTLY NEED FUNDS to pay our lawyers, buy organizational supplies and keep the lights on so we can continue to fight to stop police violence and gentrification in Brooklyn . (See all ways you can give below)

Again we thank you all for your continue activism and support .  We look forward to being in the trenches with you in 2019!

Yours in struggle,

Imani Henry, Lead Organizer for Equality for Flatbush

Here are all the ways people can GIVE TO E4F:

E4F’s Rapid Response Legal Fund :

https://www.gofundme.com/e4f-rapid-response-legal-fund-2018 #E4Fsues

General Support :

https://beforeitsgone.co/donate or https://www.paypal.me/EqualityforFlatbush

VENMO: EqualityforFlatbush

Donate By Check:

Make out checks to “Equality for Flatbush” and mail to:

Equality for Flatbush

2273 Church Avenue  POB #260123

Brooklyn, NY 11226

For Tax Exempt Donations:

Donate online at Picture The Homeless and designate your donation to Equality for Flatbush or make out checks to:

Picture the Homeless

MEMO:Equality for Flatbush

104 E 126th St #1B

New York, NY 10035