Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Yemi Belachew

Yemi Belachew is the Recruiter at Essie Justice Group, the nation’s leading advocacy organization for women with incarcerated loved ones. At Essie, Yemi designs and leads hiring and onboarding strategies to ensure the organization is staffed with the talent necessary to advance its mission of ending mass incarceration’s harm to women and communities. Yemi brings over four years of recruiting experience, rooted in her commitment to connecting people to opportunities that align with their passions and economic stability.


Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Our Ancestral Strategy: Black Feminist Organizing Tactics Against the Prison Industrial Complex

Isolation is an unseen and under-discussed tool of control used to perpetuate mass incarceration. For the 1 in 2 Black women with an incarcerated loved one, that isolation has widespread political impact.

Learn how Essie Justice Group is using the power of isolation-breaking as part of a Black Feminist organizing model to drive social change. This workshop will bring attendees in on the disproportionate harms of incarceration to Black women, uncover the radical power of connection, and uplift key insights, tactics, and strategies attendees can leverage in movement-building work.

You will hear from Essie Justice Group organizers about how women with incarcerated loved ones are caregivers and the strategic backbones of their families, rooted in lived experience, ancestral strategies, and the leadership development that results from graduating from Essie Justice Group’s Healing to Advocacy Program: advocating for self, advocating for family, and advocating for community.

Speakers: Tanasia Newman, Yemi Belachew