AJF "Safe House" Building Fund

The Mission of AJF is two fold.  First, to protect families from the worst devastation imaginable by providing them with information and resources that may save their child's life.  Second, to provide hope, help and healing from the heart rendering hurt associated with loosing a child.

Problem the AJF Center will solve: In the current time, when a family suffers the unimaginable pain of the loss of a child or other family member through cancer, suicide, or a car accident, they have a brick-and-mortar place to go. This isn't true if your loved one dies in the hands of state actors. The AJF Center for Advocacy and Peace will be a holistic program providing: support for those experiencing a loss on site (Circle of Parents/Siblings), referrals to mental health and legal professionals, a mutual aid network to help the family meet needs (especially in the critical first 48 hours after a loss), restorative justice and conflict de-escalation classes and workshops, and long-term: a restorative justice and de-escalation fellowship youth and adult program. We will begin solving the problems in our society by showing up for people and showing them that community keeps each other safe.

Our primary audience is the Black community in Hillsborough, although these programs are available for everyone. 18% of Hillsborough County's population is Black. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/hillsboroughcountyflorida/PST120219

The AJF Center for Advocacy and Peace solves many problems, both proactively and reactively. One such eventual tool that the AJFCAP hopes to offer is a restorative justice conflict resolution hotline. This hotline can be used for anyone experience a low-level conflict that would like an alternative to calling for police. Long-term, we hope to expand our restorative justice and conflict de-escalation fellowship to include alternative first responders, armed with love and care, not guns and handcuffs, to respond to everything from neighbors going at it, bar scuffles, and people with mental health needs. In addition, we will continue our existing wrap-around services for families experiencing the unthinkable while lobbying our leaders to fight to prevent future families from becoming impacted.

Why seek funding/how spend funding: Andrew Joseph III's heart was big and so are our ambitions in his memory. In order for us to serve this giant county, with many cracks in its existing services, we will need enough funding to provide fair and competitive salaries to our personnel. We will spend this funding on the brick-and-mortar building, personnel, training materials, marketing materials, and we'd like to offer our fellowship attendees, who we anticipate will be Hillsborough County's low-income residents, an opportunity to receive a stipend during the fellowship.

Who is on our team?: An eclectic group of diverse individuals, ranging from small business owners, retired, finance experts, working parents, restorative justice practitioners, transportation expert, and non-profit professionals. Our team includes men and women of multiple ethnicities and ranging across generations.

To our backers: The Andrew Joseph Foundation warmly thanks you, all of our backers, for helping this dream come true. Without your caring heart and strong sense of justice, we would not have been able to do what we have previously done and we would not be able to carry forward. It is you that help keep Andrew Joseph III and the many other stolen lives alive. We look forward to a continued relationship with you, our community, as we expand into the next phase of our work.