Wakumi Douglas
Co-Founder and Executive Director of the S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective Miami, FL Award Year: 2021Wakumi Douglas is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, a nonprofit on a mission to mobilize systems-involved girls, femmes, and TGNC youth of color – Black, Brown, and Indigenous – to interrupt cycles of state violence, poverty, and oppression through arts-based activism, healing, and peer leadership. S.O.U.L. is an intergenerational organization with a deeply ingrained learning culture and restorative practices at its heart. As the daughter of an undocumented immigrant who served over 33 years in a New Jersey prison, Wakumi has dedicated her life to building leadership among youth most impacted by mass incarceration and other oppressive systems. She previously served as a clinical supervisor for the alternative to incarceration program for youth at the Center for Community Alternatives in Brooklyn, NY. As a 2017 NoVo Foundation Move to End Violence Fellow, Wakumi lectured widely on issues related to mass incarceration, trauma, wellness, gender-based systemic disparities and healing for activists. Recently awarded a Soros Social Justice Advocacy Fellowship, she is currently examining and promoting healing justice trends and tools to end mass incarceration.
Wakumi is using her award to expand efforts to mobilize justice systems involving girls, femmes, and TGNC youth of color to interrupt cycles of state violence, poverty, and oppression.
Wakumi spoke to SHEEO.World Podcast about the crisis in our community, nation, and globally for girls of color, indigenous girls, girls in the global south and non-binary youth.