You Are Loved
Community Grant

The You Are Loved Community Grant program was created to help provide the financial resources to the families and communities within the MMIR space that need support in fighting for justice, accountability, healing, and a safer future.

The Passion:
Jordan, of Rising Hearts, and professional runner, dedicated her 2019 Boston Marathon to 26 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Since then, she has been on a mission, running for justice - running with purpose, in bringing more visibility to the movement, the families, their loved ones, the advocates, and the community organizations within the MMIR space. Since 2020, Rising Hearts has helped raise over $200,000 collectively through their virtual wellness campaigns for families of missing and murdered loved ones, advocates, survivors, organizers and community heart working organizations.  In our first year doing this, for May 5th National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples for the 2nd Annual Running For Justice event, we raised $77k that we were able to donate towards NIWRC, AKNWRC, Sovereign Bodies Institute, and a handful more of nonprofits, 2 families and 4 advocates. More resources are needed to support the efforts of fundraising, court costs, search and rescue, data, travel for hearings, listening sessions, legal fees, mental health and wellness services, community organized efforts, financial support for cost of living, and more.

The Start Line:
Join Jordan Marie Whetstone (Lakota) of Rising Hearts and Kali Mequinonoag Reis (Seaconke Wampanoag, Cabo Verde), are helping to bring more visibility for the families and their loved ones as they hope to raise $100,000 or more for You Are Loved. This will be available for the families, advocates, survivors, and organizations focused on ending this violence and creating a safer future for Indigenous Peoples. They both are running the 2024 NYC Marathon. Jordan will continue fundraising through the 2024 California International Marathon December 8th.

The You Are Loved Community Grant Program:
This community grant program is a direct services pathway for families, advocates and organizations to submit your request for on a rolling basis. We hope to raise the $100,000 + to get this program started, with a long term goal of sustaining this resource for community and outside agencies to continue to donate to or fundraise for.

Jordan, will also be running the California International Marathon, December 8th, and will continue to fundraise for the You Are Loved Community Grant Program! Rising Hearts will be partnering in kinship with the Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC) and support their MMIP Taskforce. UIC is located on Lenapehoking lands and it’s important for Rising Hearts to collaborate in meaningful ways with groups local and with a close connection to MMIP Advocates and Families in the surrounding areas.

Management of Funds:
If the $100k is raised or more, Rising Hearts will donate $20k to directly support the needs the Urban Indigenous Collective MMIP Taskforce and those they work with and support. If we reach our larger goal of $250,000, $10,000 will go towards Rising Hearts for management of the program, applications, advocacy, event organizing, and content creation. The amount for Rising Hearts may increase due to amount of work for 2 PTE supporting the program.

Since Rising Hearts is fiscally sponsored, they have teamed up with UIC to hold and help distribute the funds once the goal or goals are reached while Rising Hearts manages the applications, website, content creation, and community relations. If Rising Hearts were to hold the funds, 11% of what is raised would have to be given to our fiscal sponsor, which lessens the pool of funds for families, survivors, and advocacy organizations.

Applications will go live January 1, 2025 on a rolling basis, need basis and urgency basis:
+ Examples of Need Basis: mental health and wellness costs / access, printing costs, banners, shirts for awareness / memorials, direct assistance for family / families, impact campaign / storytelling that will directly uplift and support loved one / families
+ Examples of Urgency Basis: Funeral costs, vigils, search and rescue, DNA testing to expedite progress in loved ones case, MMIR based conference / Federal listening session

How To Learn More + Donate:
To donate, you can start now! Visit www.risinghearts.org/nomorestolenrelatives and you’ll find more information and resources for this advocacy and starting October 23, 2024, we will share more updates about Jordan and Kali for the 2024 TCS NYC Marathon to learn more about who they are running for, their why, resources to learn from and more. And we will be sharing our PSA videos here. Stay tuned!

Stay Up To Date:
Subscribe to the Rising Hearts newsletter - www.risinghearts.org or visit our blog www.risinghearts.org/blog for updates about fundraising, follow us at @rising_hearts on IG | @nativein_la | @kali_ko_reis

Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC):
UIC supports access to culturally-tailored health and wellness services for self-identified Indigenous peoples in Lenapehoking and the greater NYC area (NY, NJ, CT, PA) through community-based participatory research, advocacy, community programming, and direct services.

MMIP Taskforce:
Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC) has gathered a MMIWGT2S Task Force,  "Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force" a collaborative and community-driven initiative made up of survivors, relatives of MMIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People), matriarchs, clan mothers, and elders, the Task Force draws its members from Tribal Nations spanning the tri-state area and its surrounding regions.  Advising UIC's MMIWGT2S NYC+ program, this Task Force was assembled with the purpose of advocating for victims and survivors, providing peer support to movement leaders who are survivors, and creating a platform for survivor voices, so that the world can learn directly from survivors and relatives of MMIP’s.

Glossary:
MMIR = Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives
MMIP = Missing and Murdered Indigenous People