Dear Community members,

We, a group of parents and loved ones of Black children, are writing to you about a dream we are actualizing. We are building a small school in Vermont that explicitly centers the safety, integrity, joy and freedom of Black children. We are calling it The Freedom Finders Collective. When we say freedom, we turn to the work of Mia Birdsong as she connects us to the word's origins. In How We Show Up, Birdsong writes:

 “In Liberty and Freedom, David Hackett Fischer explains that the word free is derived from the Indo-European ‘Priya’. Which means beloved. Friend also shares this common root with freedom. A free person was someone who was joined to a tribe of free people by ties of kinship and rites of belonging.  Freedom was the idea that together we can ensure that we all have the things we need; love, food, shelter, safety.  The way I’ve come to understand it, freedom is both an individual and collective endeavor. A multilayered process, not a static state of being.  Being free is in part achieved through being connected.” 

In the spirit of the Freedom Summer Project of 1964, the Freedom Finders Collective is striving to create a learning environment that will enable Black children to reach their fullest potential. The freedom schools paradigm of the 1960’s can be understood as a direct action, in response to “the disproportionate resources afforded to Black Mississippi schools, which had been specifically designed to maintain a relatively uneducated and politically inept labor force that undergirded a commitment to white supremacy.” While these iterations of schools existed almost 60 years ago, the context remains unsettlingly relevant for Black children today.

As we step into 2023, we continue to process the grief, violence, racism and devastation of these times; while also reflecting upon the joy, renewal, creation and love shown and felt this past year. As history has taught us, Black folks--and more specifically young Black folks--have been the driving fighters and protectors of life, liberation and democracy in America. Young Black people led the incredibly powerful reckonings this summer against police violence. In Burlington, VT young Black folks led one of the most powerful direct action movements the city has ever seen, to fight for the accountability of our police department. Black folks in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and Minneapolis and Detroit helped remove the most violent, racist, negligent president of our lifetimes from office. Young Black folks in Georgia led a historic movement to flip Georgia Blue, and take back control of the Senate. 

While this tradition of activism has achieved some notable gains toward racial equity and justice, we want to take a more proactive approach to racial and social justice. We will attempt this by creating a school that fosters a liberatory mindset. We are convinced that liberation and academic excellence for Black children can be achieved by nurturing an early learning environment where our children will be provided a Black/African frame of reference that is consistent with the global majority, world history of today and of time immemorial. 

In order to educate children guided by their needs, interests and leadership, we will assess children's learning through more holistic processes than standardized testing. This decision means we will not have access to state or federal money for any student older than five years. Therefore, the financial sustainability of our school will rely largely on the sharing and support of many members of our community.  We write to you to extend both a request and an invitation--to join us in this fundamental endeavor, by investing in a quality education for young Black children in our community. Thank you for your consideration and we hope you continue to learn more details about our school in the pages that follow.

With gratitude,

Jessica Giles, Kimisha Drummond, Infinite Culcleasure, Grace Aldrich, Jamie Davis, noa isabella, Kathleen Benitez Martinez, Skyla Winters, Sephirah Feinberg & Emma Redden