With the midterm elections just around the corner, a lot of us are thinking about what’s at stake—and what we can do to help build the future we want to see.

What if, instead of wondering what we can do about the challenges facing our communities, we spent the next few months doing something about them—together?

That’s what Giving Projects at Bread & Roses are all about.

Our Gender Justice Giving Project kicks off October 27, bringing together people who care about gender justice to build relationships, learn from one another, engage their networks, and raise money for grassroots organizing in the Philadelphia region.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

This past Monday, a coalition of organizers and community groups—among them Bread & Roses Community Fund grantee, Philly Thrive—gathered on the south side of City Hall with a clear demand: a three-year moratorium on new data center construction in Philadelphia.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

We hope you’re enjoying these last days of summer and finding opportunities for rest, joy, and rejuvenation.

At Bread & Roses, we’ve been taking some of that time for ourselves. Our office has been closed this week for a collective period of rest—a chance for our team to step away, recharge, and return to the work with renewed energy and imagination.

We believe that making time to rest and recharge is part of how we build movements strong enough to last.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

In these challenging times, what gives me hope is the people who keep organizing—building power, fighting back, and winning change in their communities.

Want to hear directly from some of those organizers?

Bread & Roses Community Fund is hosting Inside the Movement, a new webinar series where you get to meet the organizers building power with support from Bread & Roses.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

This spring, members of the 2026 Racial & Economic Justice Giving Project raised funds to make grants through the Racial & Economic Justice Fund and the Future Fund, both of which build power toward racial justice and a just economy. Their work made it possible for Bread & Roses to make grants in the Racial & Economic Justice Fund and Future Fund to 30 organizations fighting for racial, economic, and social justice this year!

We hope you will join us in lifting up the incredible work of our grantees and celebrating the work of our Giving Project members.

Please join us for a series, Inside the Movement, featuring Bread & Roses grantees this fall:

Inside the Movement
featuring 2026 grantees from the Future Fund

Wednesday, September 9, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT

Grantee organizations:

• At The Center
• Gapura Philadelphia
• Homies Helping Homies
• Kiths Integrated and Targeted Human Services (KITHS)
• Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac
• Philly Justice Innovators
• Prayers for Peace Alliance

Inside the Movement
featuring 2026 grantees from the Racial & Economic Justice Fund, Part 1

Thursday, September 24, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT

Grantee organizations:

• Amistad Law Project
• Brewerytown Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition
• Camden for Clean Air
• El Comité de Trabajadorxs
• Lift Every Voice Philly
• Philly Homeless Union
• Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign / Poor People’s Army
• The W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction
• Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project

Inside the Movement
featuring grantees from the 2026 Racial & Economic Justice Fund, Part 2

Thursday, October 8, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT

Grantee organizations:

• Free Migration Project
• Healing Communities PA
• Indigenous Education
• Philadelphia Community Bail Fund
• reparationWorks

All three sessions will be held on Zoom. Each will include short presentations from grantees followed by a discussion that includes questions shared by attendees. (Tell us what you want to know! You can submit questions via the RSVP forms.)

Each session will be recorded. If you can’t make the event, please register anyway so we can send you the link to the recording afterward.

We hope you’ll join us!

This August, we remember—and recommit.

Black August was created in 1979 when incarcerated Black activists came together to honor the memories of political prisoners and freedom fighters who had died at the hands of the state. Inspired by the legacy of George Jackson, a Black Panther Party leader who had dedicated his life to educating and organizing people behind prison walls, they created a month of political education, reflection, and resistance that continues today.

Black August reminds us that change has always been driven by ordinary people who come together to build power and take action.

It honors generations of Black resistance—from those who fought to end slavery, to those organizing against mass incarceration, state violence, and systemic racism in every generation since.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

Organizing changes what’s possible.

Last week, Pennsylvania’s new state budget included an additional $1 million for the arts. It’s the first increase in public arts funding since 2009. Against a nearly $51 billion state budget, it could be easily overlooked. But behind that $1 million is a story of people coming together around a shared goal and building the power to win.

Artists, cultural workers, and activists from across Pennsylvania organized for more public investment in the grassroots organizations and communities that make our state’s creative and cultural life so vibrant.

Among them was Bread & Roses grantee Movimiento Administradores de Arte en Pensilvania (MAAP), which helped lead the effort. Alongside partners across the state, they built a broad coalition and made the case that public funding should better support grassroots and culturally rooted organizations.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

Since we’re off tomorrow, From the Frontlines arrives in your inbox a day early. Rest, renewal, and joy are vital parts of creating the world we want to live in. Building power is about taking care of one another, our own communities, and uniting for the greater good. Whether you choose to escape the heat for a long weekend or take to the streets in resistance at the People’s Parade, we will continue to rise up together.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

Friday was Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the moment of the end of slavery in the United States. 

Abolishing slavery was a monumental achievement in a country built on the labor of enslaved people. Courageous people worked together across race and class over many generations to win this victory. Justice doesn’t happen naturally—it requires sustained action. A. Philip Randolph, a Black labor leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, said, “Freedom is never granted: It is won. Justice is never given: It is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands and races.” 

Randolph’s words still resonate today. We are still winning our freedom. We are still exacting our justice. And we are struggling and winning in community, arm in arm with each other. At Tribute to Change two weeks ago, we felt the power of collective effervescence, of a call-and-response of “Sí Se Puede” led by Juntos and echoed by hundreds of us.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.