The Grown ups

Pictured—Attendees from our first Freedom Side Community Event , November 2021

(Sonia Rosen, Erikah Hurtt, Zakiya Brown, Kalimah Cunningham, Marthea Brown, Angela Baker, Gillian Goldberg, Sam Carter, Qil Jones, Oli Jones, Katy Kopnitsky, Amber Lammarata, Yilu Jin, Thea Abu El-Haj, Daniel Stern, Reem Esther, Noa Coffey-Moore, Priya Dieterich)

Vision Team Members:

Faith Adams

Ms Faith is a member of the Freedom Side School Vision Team. She worked at the school district of Philadelphia for many years as a supportive services teacher for K-3rd grade. She worked both in the school office and in the disciplinary room, creating space for children to feel loved in accountable ways. She's a member of CADBI (The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration) and the Human Rights Coalition, who work avidly to get legislation passed, and to support lifers and those beyond prison walls who are being mistreated. 

Ms Faith loves small children, interacting with them, and making sure they're okay, especially considering the stigma directly impacted kids , who have lost a loved one to the system, hold. Her son was wrongfully committed and incarcerated for first degree murder. She watched her 2 year old granddaughter suffer due to the loss of her father's presence. 

She fights tirelessly for the liberation of directly impacted children's hearts, minds, and families.  

Kalimah Cunningham

Ms Kalimah got her Bachelors from Drexel University and her Masters in Human Services with a concentration in addiction at Lincoln University. She has worked at St Joes hospital, founded a basketball team at the Community Recc center, and has been working in criminal justice reform for the past 30 years. She’s an official visitor of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, advocating for the rights of incarcerated community members, and she’s a member of The Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI) and Human Rights Coalition (HRC). Her proudest and greatest accomplishments are raising her children, her 15 grandchildren, and her 9 great-grand babies. When she was a kid, her favorite thing to do was read!

Marthea Brown

Ms Marthea is passionate about being with people. She loves seeing the outcome of working with people. She won a Making a Difference award because of her compassionate care with patients at UPENN. She worked at the Peirce School as an NTA and won community awards for her youth work, and after school programming. She loves watching people be successful at what they do. She loves to watch people grow. When she walks into a room, she asks herself whether she’ll make someone smile. She thinks about how she can make that person feel comfortable. She loves studying children and reading their moods, so she can know what she can offer as support. Ms Marthea is a member of The Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI) and is on the Participatory Defense team. As a kid, her favorite thing to do was to do math, play at recess, and going home for lunch. 

Lorraine “Mrs. Dee-Dee” Haw

Mrs. Dee-Dee is an activist who advocates against mass incarceration. She organizes with CADBI, Free the Ballot, FAMM, HRC, SCI Phoenix Mann Up, Free Them to Heal Us, and Put People First. She loves football, reading Christian mysteries, and to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. She grew up in North Philly with nine brothers and two sisters (she is number five out of the twelve!). She’s a mother to one son who is serving a Death By Incarceration sentence. As a kid, her favorite thing to do was play with her friends and going to the art museum and the zoo.