2024 Impact Report
Last year marked an important landmark for Indigenous Justice Circle: we celebrated our second anniversary as an independent and Indigenous-led organization. This achievement allowed us to reflect on the support we have received as well as the hard work our team and partners have carried out on behalf of the communities we serve. We have put together a small summary highlighting our work and impact on 2024. Join us in celebrating and stay tuned for exciting news as we welcome the new year.
This year we signed partnership agreements with six Indigenous-Women-led organizations across Turtle Island. Supporting these groups as they develop their Native Girl programming and transform their communities is the highlight of our work at IJC. Likewise, this year our team was able to visit some of these organizations on-site. We are extremely proud of our collaborations with these amazing groups and look forward to our continued partnerships!
After 3 years of funding, bridge building, and technical assistance IJC's IMAGEN Girl Society Program is taken up as tribal best practice by the federally recognized Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (MLBO) tribal government. MLBO's IMAGEN Girl Society is to support girls' mental health and connect them with mentors and strengths-based skill building and cultural enrichment opportunities.
In January a short video highlighting our work in supporting Indigenous Mental Health Equity was selected for the American Pyschological Association's (APA) "Culturally-Informed Trauma and Grief Recovery Toolkit."
Later, in February and March, we presented “The Lakota Daughters: Renewing Native Support Structures for Girls & 2SLGBTQ+" at the American Indian Studies Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM; Applied Anthropology Annual Conference, Santa Fe, NM; and UC-Denver Center for Identity and Inclusion.
In April we co-hosted an event on the sidelines of the 2024 UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: "Indigenous Girls' Movements: Strengthening Indigenous Systems & Self-Determination." Facilitated by Marianne McCune an NPR radio host, speakers included: Prof. Hannah McGlade, Curtin University, Australia; Callie Pettigrew, Columbia University, MPH student; Kashmir Bowser, Native American Community Services of Erie and Niagara Counties; River Webb, International Two-Spirit Ambassador; Ms. Elizabeth Vasques, Abriendo Oportunidades, Guatemala; Angel del Valle, Population Council, Guatemala. As a result, our Founder and Executive Director Dr. Kelly Hallman was interviewed by UN News.
Photos by Howard Jay Heyman, featuring (left to right) Webb, McCune, Hallman, del Valle, and Bowser.
In May our brief “The IMAGEN Story: A Framework for Restoring Indigenous Girl Societies” was listed as a primary Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) resource by US Department of Health and Human Services.
Additionally, Kelly was invited as discussant at a Johns Hopkins Center for Global Women's Health & Gender Equity event in Washington, DC.
Kelly at the Folklife Festival site in Washington D.C.
Kelly and IJC’s Media & Communications Consultant, Kassel Garibay were featured speakers at the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. They joined the festival from June 29 to July 1st to share information about the transnational Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) crisis, its historical roots, and what can be done to combat it. Read about our experiences here!
In July IJC contributed an article for the Population Institute’s report “Revitalizing Population and Development in the 21st Century.” Our article, titled “Indigenous Sovereignty Is the Key to Indigenous Gender Transformative Justice” highlights Indigenous perspectives on development, health, and population. An accompanying video, featuring Kelly, was released in September.
In October we presented a new resource for our IMAGEN Circle partners: an attendance app designed to help manage Girl Societies and act as an early warning system for MMIP. This app was developed through conversations with our partners about their needs. While this is available only for our current partners, we have plenty of free resources available online.
On November 21, Native Women’s Equal Pay Day, Kelly joined PowHer New York for an interview. Kelly spoke about how this wage gap emerged and what can be done to close it.
This December was also the second year IJC was featured in the Native Ways Federation Native Nonprofit List.
