EM Power

EM Power EM | Power- People Organized Working to End Racism

Address

Pittsburgh, PA

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14123682729

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How this all started

On June 2nd we wanted a sign for our yard but didn’t feel good about giving our money to Amazon. We looked for a local organization that was selling signs and creating change. We were unable to find one and decided to create a sign and share it with our neighbors. We were debating if we should buy 50 or 100 signs and didn’t want to end up with too many extra. Interest in the signs went wide, quick. Several women from our community reached out, offered to help, and we created a team. We were lucky enough to get feedback from several Black friends and community members who pointed out that our sign was not inclusive. We went to work and released a survey asking for feedback about the language that we were using in our signs. From the feedback we created two new signs and were able to find a local Black owned design and printing company called Expanding Minds.

All donations and proceeds were originally going to the Bukit Bail Fund, which is a great organization dedicated to assisting with bail for “inmates who are at the highest risk of experiencing violence in jail: Melanated folks (including, but not limited to, folks who are Black, Latinx, and Native), those who experience chronic illness & disability, the working class and poor folk, those without homes, trans, q***r, and gender non-conforming folk, people who are pregnant, those struggling with mental illness, and any other identity that has been disproportionately targeted by the systems of oppression”. As a community we have raised $1,464.47 for the Bukit Bail Fund.

We have recently switched to donating all proceeds to Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP). B-PEP has several important initiatives, but the one that we feel is the most time sensitive, is their initiative to register all Black people to vote and empower involvement in elections. We feel that this is a very concrete way that we can create change quickly. Change cannot happen without politicians in office who will champion and vote for laws that protect the citizens of this country who have been overlooked and ignored.

We are so happy to see the support for Black people in our community with all of the yard signs. We are even more grateful for the donations and support that we have received for both of these important organizations. We hope to continue to sell and print signs, with proceeds going to organizations that support change for Black individuals and Black communities. We will order new signs every Friday as long as we have people requesting and paying for a total of at least 100 signs.