Our Mission – Rev. Nikia Smith Robert, PhD

MISSION STATEMENT

Abolitionist Sanctuary is a national coalition of Black-serving churches, civic organizations and communities trained in abolitionist principles to unite against the moral crisis of mass incarceration and the criminalization of impoverished Black motherhood.

We are abolitionists who collectively make a radical investment in liberation and communal flourishing achieved through education, consulting, and civic engagement.

Our educational commitment is to train faith and civic leaders to apply abolitionist principles to repair, restore, and rebuild just and equitable communities.

As consultants, we advise organizations to integrate solutions that strengthen diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace.

As community organizers, we create transformative justice strategies to increase civic engagement that affirms the inherent worth of underrepresented groups, especially impoverished Black mothers.

Our vision is to lead a faith-based abolitionist movement united against the moral crisis of mass incarceration and the criminalization of impoverished Black motherhood.

We envision a national coalition of churches and communities trained to apply emancipatory religious values and abolitionist principles to repair, restore, and rebuild a more just and equitable society where poor Black mothers can flourish beyond punishment and prisons.

VISION

VALUES

Compassion

Care

Creativity

Courage

Community

We advocate for compassion as an alternative to punitive responses and recognize the divinity of Black mothers as moral agents with inherent worth.

We uphold radical practices of care to build sanctuary for poor Black mothers and their families to thrive.

We affirm the power of creativity to imagine new pathways, policies, and programs pointed toward transformative justice strategies and abolition.

We believe that courage is necessary to challenge structural injustices and to end discriminatory policing, criminalization, and mass incarceration.

We promote community as essential for coalition building, shared accountability, and collective flourishing.

" I envision walking through the doors of the Church, peering into an Abolitionist Sanctuary with murals painted in vivid colors capturing stories of survival and liberative life-giving possibilities that starkly contrast the monochromatic and melancholic hues of prison and death-dealing circumstances in the carceral state. "

Rev. Nikia S. Robert, PhD

Founder and Executive Director