The For Us, By Us Fund (FUBU Fund) is a flexible funding and organizing initiative that seeks to support the creative and organizing efforts of people of color (PoC) in Maine. The initiative, started after the election in November 2016, was the brainchild of two Portland-based Black women organizers. The fund was started in response to the needs the founders heard in their communities. After the election, PoCs in southern Maine expressed a need for funds, space, and opportunities to connect, collaborate, create, and organize. The founders are committed to keeping the fund flexible to respond to these needs.

The FUBU Fund is, in its inception, a collaborative project. Since its initial days, the FUBU Fund has sponsored a variety of organizing and growth opportunities for PoC in southern Maine. The fund has sponsored:  skill-building conference/workshop trips for local Black and Indigenous activists; skill-building conference/workshop trips for local Black artists; a training trip to initiate an Outdoor Afro chapter in Portland, Maine; Women of Color (WoC) self-defense classes; an ongoing reading group for WoC. In 2017, organizers connected to the FUBU Fund collaborated with ROSC to organize "Changing Maine for Racial Justice: Centering Anti-Racism in Our Movements." And in the summer of 2018, organizers connected to the Fund will organize a first-time writing retreat for WoC/PoC femmes, called "Words of Fire: Moon Marked and Touched By the Sun," a fully-funded retreat that provides participants with the opportunity to create with and learn from workshop facilitators and other participants. The fund has also been accessed to address some emergency basic needs of members of the PoC community.

Please stroll by our website: https://fubufund.org/

Or check us out on Facebook: The For Us, By Us Fund