Project summary

The Sanctuary Solidarity Project is a community-driven initiative by APEX Advocacy that strengthens connections between animal sanctuaries, racial justice movements, and local communities through education, storytelling, mutual aid, and direct engagement. The project reimagines sanctuaries as spaces for collective healing, environmental education, food systems transformation, and movement-building.

Through sanctuary gatherings, volunteer days, workshops, plant-based community meals, youth programming, and digital storytelling campaigns, we aim to create accessible pathways for people to engage with animal liberation in ways that are culturally relevant, intersectional, and rooted in compassion. The project also supports partnerships between sanctuaries and frontline organizers working on food sovereignty, environmental justice, and regenerative agriculture.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Our primary goals are to:

• Increase public engagement with animal sanctuaries and compassionate food systems

• Build stronger connections between animal advocacy, racial justice, and community care movements

• Expand access to sanctuary spaces for historically excluded and underrepresented communities

• Create educational and storytelling content that inspires long-term systems change

• Strengthen collaboration between sanctuaries, activists, educators, and mutual aid networks

We will achieve these goals through a combination of in-person and digital programming. Planned activities include sanctuary immersion days, volunteer mobilization events, educational workshops, youth engagement opportunities, speaker panels, plant-based meal programs, and multimedia storytelling campaigns featuring sanctuary operators, advocates, and community members.

We will leverage APEX Advocacy’s communications and organizing experience to amplify the project online through video content, social media campaigns, interviews, and educational resources that connect sanctuary work to broader struggles for environmental and social justice.

How will this funding be used?

Funding will support:

• Transportation to help community members access sanctuary events

• Stipends for facilitators, educators, sanctuary partners, and creatives

• Plant-based meals and event supplies for community programming

• Volunteer coordination and outreach efforts

• Media production, photography, and storytelling campaigns

• Accessibility needs including interpretation, captions, and accommodations

• Educational materials and workshop resources

• Administrative and logistical costs associated with organizing events and partnerships

This funding will directly expand our ability to host accessible, high-impact programming and deepen relationships between sanctuaries and the communities they serve.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

APEX Advocacy's Executive Director Yvette Baker is the program lead developer. She has successfully piloted The Sanctuary Solidarity Project and our virtual rescue tours during APEX's annual year-end virtual event, "The After Party," and successfully supported over 150 animals and 17 adoptions. She is also the co-program lead of APEX Advocacy's Pre-Animal Activist Week (P.A.A.W.) leadership development program, which has an 80% success rate of supporting non-vegan justice advocates in adopting a plant-based diet, advocating for animals, or both.

Our team also includes APEX Director of Communications Yasmin Badshamiah, APEX Director of Digital Media Strategy Christopher Sebastian, and APEX Development Support Specialist Sunny Satva.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The most likely challenges include insufficient funding, limited organizational capacity, scheduling and logistical barriers with sanctuary partners, or difficulties sustaining long-term community participation. Broader political and economic instability could also affect participation and donor support.

If the project fails to meet its goals, the outcome would likely be reduced programming capacity and fewer opportunities for community engagement and movement-building. However, even partial implementation would still contribute meaningful educational content, relationship-building, and public awareness around sanctuary work and compassionate food systems.

To reduce these risks, we are intentionally building partnerships, creating scalable programming models, leveraging digital outreach, and prioritizing community-centered collaboration to ensure the project remains adaptable and sustainable over time.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

We have raised approximately $190,000 in the past 12 months to support our programming and general non-profit operations. This includes support from private foundations, donor advised funds, individual donors, Patreon supporters, and event and merch earned revenue.