Download HEAL’s 2025 Year in Review
There is no pathway to a better future without deep connection and solidarity with each other.
This year, we’ve all witnessed an increasingly fascist regime attempt to militarize the state and wage war on our communities. We’ve seen ICE rip families apart while funding for SNAP and FEMA are slashed – despite escalating climate chaos and food insecurity. We’ve seen the rollback of voting rights, environmental wins, and labor protections to appease billionaires and corporations, all while immigrant food and farm workers, trans folks, and anyone who speaks out for justice become targets of violence.
But instead of cowering in fear, our communities are facing the storm together.
“When a storm approaches, buffalo don’t run away from the storm, they group together and run towards it. Together, they are strong and swift. Together, they move through.”
– Norma Wong, Zen master and Native Hawaiian activist
As always, I’m in awe of our members and all the ways they are showing up: the farmers, fishers, warehouse, meat, restaurant and farm workers who, every day, feed our communities. The organizers, educators, lawyers, and advocates who fight for our dignity and survival. The Indigenous leaders who practice and pass on traditional ecological knowledge to ensure that the land and her people remain nourished. I’m honored to serve this coalition who remind me every day that HEAL’s strength comes from our unity and collective solidarity as a people who are rooted in love for the land, for each other, and for the liberation of our communities.
Together, we’ve continued to fight for workers, farmers, and our communities. In the middle of this tumultuous year, despite the attacks on nonprofit organizations, HEAL took steps to maximize our ability to mobilize in this moment and beyond. We made a big, bold decision to become an independent 501c3 organization, and we dove deep into rapid response and planning for what lies ahead.
We moved $500,000 to our members, hosted trainings, and distributed nearly 29,000 Know Your Rights cards, in 17 languages, to member organizations across the country on the front lines of community safety and deportation defense. We fought democracydefying orders and cuts to essential services. And at this fall’s HEAL Member Summit, 115 of us came together to grow connective power and plan our alliance’s collective resistance over the next five years.
Collectively, we are in the fight of our lives and the generations to come – and I am eternally grateful for the community that enables us to continue this fight.
Because just like the buffalo, we are unstoppable.
We are steadfast and we are powerful.
We are rooted and we are resilient.
We are ready for whatever comes next.