Evie Litwok walked out of federal prison in 2014 with $30 and a Greyhound ticket. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Evie founded Witness to Mass Incarceration to help formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives with dignity and support. Her work is deeply informed by her family’s experience of survival and her commitment to bearing witness to injustice. Witness to Mass Incarceration provides practical reentry support like laptops and phones for newly released individuals, offers vocational training, documents the stories of incarcerated people, connects formerly incarcerated business owners to build economic empowerment, and advocates to change conditions inside prisons, particularly around sexual violence and abuse. The Good People Fund gave Evie her very first grant, making this transformative work possible.
Witness to Mass Incarceration is supported by the Good People Fund, which invests in innovative grassroots organizations making a difference in their communities.

In this final episode of our Building Bridges series on Good People Talk, Naomi Eisenberger, The Good People Fund’s Founder and Executive Director, speaks with Jon Adam Ross, founder of Inheritance Theater Project, a Good People Fund grantee that uses performance art to build bridges between community members in cities across the country. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, Jon’s family considered civic engagement and belief in a civil society to be of paramount importance in one’s life. Going on to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Jon was exposed to a wide range of performance art, eventually building his life’s work which combines those talents with his early lessons in creating and maintaining a civil society. Today, Inheritance Theater Project has created programs in more than 20 states, as well as for prestigious programs at Harvard Divinity School, the Obama Foundation and other entities. Jon shares stories of hope that have sprung up in the cities where ITP has appeared and believes that we, as a country, can go beyond the current unrest shaking the core beliefs of our shared society.

The Good People Fund relies on the generosity of supporters like you to continue this work. Visit goodpeoplefund.org/donate to make a gift today.

In this episode of Good People Talk, Julie Fisher, associate executive director of The Good People Fund, speaks with Matt Fieldman and Charmaine Rice, co-founders of Rekindle, a Good People Fund grantee bringing Black and Jewish leaders together for dialogue, friendship, and shared action. Matt and Charmaine share what inspired them to create Rekindle and how they’ve built brave spaces for difficult conversations about race, identity, and history. They trace Rekindle’s remarkable growth from a single Cleveland cohort to a national movement spanning 20 cities, exploring what it means to rekindle the historic Black-Jewish alliance forged during the Civil Rights Movement. The conversation delves into how Rekindle fellows are bringing this work back to their own communities, how Matt and Charmaine navigate polarization and division with hope and courage, and ultimately, what gives them hope for the future.

The Good People Fund relies on the generosity of supporters like you to continue this work. Visit goodpeoplefund.org/donate to make a gift today.